This note examines recent trends in infant mortality in India, based on summary reports from the Sample Registration System. We find evidence of slowdown, pauses, and reversals in infant mortality decline in large parts of India in 2017 and 2018. In urban areas, the infant mortality rate stagnated at 23 deaths per 1,000 births between 2016 and 2018. Worse, overall infant mortality increased in the poorer states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. One possible interpretation of these findings is that the demonetisation experiment in late 2016 and the subsequent economic slowdown had an adverse effect on child health.
