Change on a year earlierMarch 2021Maternal and child
Bihar: C-section share of institutional deliveries rose to 22.8% in March 2021, against 2.5% a year earlier (+20.4 points).
What happened
- March 2021
- 22.8%
- March 2020
- 2.5%
- Change
- +20.4%
- Change, percentage points
- +20.4 pts
Why it matters
Comparing a week or month with the same week or month a year earlier removes ordinary seasonality: monsoon-season fever, the March reporting rush. What remains is change the calendar does not explain.
For C-section share of institutional deliveries, neither a rise nor a fall is better in itself, so the observatory marks this movement as unusual rather than good or bad.
Historical context
Compared with the same month of 2020, which removes ordinary seasonality. This comparison involves the COVID-19 disruption period (March 2020 – June 2021), when service use and reporting fell sharply.
Full history of C-section share of institutional deliveries in Bihar
The underlying data
| Period | Value | Release | Where in the document |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 2021 | 22.8% | HMIS item-wise monthly report, All India across states, March 2021 (FY 2020-21, provisional) | 2020-2021(Data is Provisional)/A.MonthWise/L-Mar.xlsx: ('3.1' Total C -Section deliveries performed) / ('2.2' Number of Institutional Deliveries conducted (Including C-Sections)) × 100; column "Bihar", Total [(A+B) or (C+D)] |
| March 2020 | 2.5% | HMIS item-wise monthly report, All India across states, March 2020 (FY 2019-20, provisional) | 2019-2020.zip › 2019-2020/A.MonthWise/L - March.xls: ('3.1' Total C -Section deliveries performed) / ('2.2' Number of Institutional Deliveries conducted (Including C-Sections)) × 100; column "Bihar", Total [(A+B) or (C+D)] |
Source and method
More signals for C-section share of institutional deliveries in Bihar
- Bihar: C-section share of institutional deliveries in May 2021 was 4.3%, above the 4-year median of 2.7% for the same month (+1.6 points).
- Bihar: C-section share of institutional deliveries in March 2021 was 22.8%, above the 3-year median of 2.8% for the same month (+20 points).
- Bihar: C-section share of institutional deliveries of 22.8% in March 2021 is the highest in the series, which begins April 2017.
- Bihar: C-section share of institutional deliveries of 1.7% in July 2020 is the lowest in the series, which begins April 2017.
- Bihar: C-section share of institutional deliveries of 2.1% in April 2020 is the lowest since October 2017.
- Bihar: C-section share of institutional deliveries in April 2020 was 2.1%, below the 3-year median of 2.6% for the same month (−0.5 points).
Cite this
According to the India Health Observatory, Bihar: C-section share of institutional deliveries rose to 22.8% in March 2021, against 2.5% a year earlier (+20.4 points). Source: Health Management Information System, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, HMIS item-wise monthly report, All India across states, March 2021 (FY 2020-21, provisional). https://indiahealthobservatory.com/signals/c-section-rate-institutional--bihar--2021-03--yoy_change
See also Bihar and 22.8% in context.