Data | Which districts registered the most C-section deliveries?

While many women in need of caesarean sections still do not have access to it, particularly in low resource settings, many others undergo the procedure unnecessarily, for reasons which are not medically justified (Source: Special Arrangement)

While medically justified caesarean section births help prevent maternal mortality, the World Health Organization (WHO) insists that the rate of C-sections in a region should not exceed 15%. An analysis of C-section rates as of 2016 reveals that most districts in southern States exceed the WHO recommendation by a huge margin. In the north, northeast and central States, the WHO rate is not exceeded by much in public hospitals but a high rate in private hospitals has pushed up the overall figure.

Prevalent in the south

The graph plots the % of births delivered by C-section in districts across all States. All the districts in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala recorded a C-section % above both the WHO’s recommended rate of 15% and the Indian average of 17.2%. Such districts are marked by a red circle.

State-wise percentage of C-sections

C-sections NFHS 15-16 Chart 1 

The public-private dichotomy

The graph plots % share of C-section births in private health facilities against its difference with the corresponding share in public health facilities. For example, in Murshidabad, West Bengal, 96.7% of all private hospital births in the period were C-sections, which is 82.1 percentage points more than the share of C-sections in public hospitals (14.6%) in the same district.

Which districts saw the highest share of C-sections in private health facilities

C-sections NFHS 15-16 Chart 2

Source: *National Family Health Survey, 2015-16

Districts where data were unavailable in the NFHS-4 report were ignored