Written By: Muskan Gupta | Published : June 1, 2026 4:45 PM IST
Diarrhea among children (Image AI Generated)
India has made an impressive public health breakthrough, with the substantial reduction of cases among children where diarrhea is deemed serious. According to the latest findings from the National Family Health Survey-6 (NFHS-6), reveals better reductions in the incidence of severe diarrhoea and associated mortality at the country over time. This is especially crucial, as diarrhea was a leading cause of death amongst children in India, aged between 0-5 years.
Some of the reasons for this progress are broadly distributed vaccines, increased availability of health services, better sanitation, and access to better water supply. It not only denotes enhanced child health but also public health system's growth.
The latest data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare shows encouraging progress. According to NFHS-6, the prevalence of severe diarrhea among children has fallen from 0.7 percent in NFHS-5 to 0.5 percent.
While this may only be indicative of a slight fluctuation, public health experts point out that this means thousands of children are spared of severe illness and its possible life-threatening complications. The decline is projected to markedly help diminish child mortality rates in the next few years.
Diarrhea cases
Improved vaccination coverage has been one of the largest successes in combating the spread of COVID-19. Coverage of rotavirus vaccine, a vaccine to protect children from one of the most significant causes of severe diarrhoea, has significantly increased.
The proportion of children (12 23 months) receiving all three doses of rotavirus vaccine rose from 36.4 per cent of children in NFHS-5 to 85.4 per cent in NFHS-6.
Mission Indradhanush has been one of the government's initiatives that has made significant contributions towards timely delivery of necessary immunizations to children. Immunisation rates have broadened and health officers are convinced that it has substantially curbed the incidence of diarrhoea diseases among young children.
The other reason for reduction in cases of diarrhoea is improvement in access to clean drinking water and sanitation. The central initiatives like Jal Jeevan Mission and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan played an active role in achieving greater improvement in safe water and good sanitary facilities in both rural and urban areas. These campaigns have directly affected the reduction of diarrheal diseases as contaminated water and inadequate sanitation is a leading cause.
The Health Ministry told the PHT that the U-5 (under 5 years of age) mortality rate in India dropped from 45 deaths in 2014 to 28 deaths in 2024.
Active participation of frontline healthcare providers has contributed to timely intervention and treatment to child patients without them suffering from complications.
