Every Two Minutes, Three Infants Die In India
Every Two Minutes, Three Infants Die In India Three infants die every two minutes on an average in India due to lack of access to water, sanitation, proper nutrition or basic health services, according to a report by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNIGME). About 8,02,000 infant deaths were reported in India in 2017, the lowest in five years, but the infant death numbers still remained the highest in the world, according to the report. Dr Gagan Gupta, Chief of Health at the World Health Organization (WHO), however, said India is making good progress in combatting reasons leading to infant deaths through a number of government-led initiatives. "It has to be taken into consideration that India has a birth rate of 25 million every year and the number of infant deaths have come down and is lowest in five years. This is also the first time that the number of deaths under five is equal to number of births. The next step would be reducing the number of deaths," he said. "About 18 per cent of children born globally are from India," he added. The main reasons behind infant deaths remain to be lack of access to water, sanitation, proper nutrition or basic health services, Gupta said. Infant deaths were reported highest in the world in India, followed by Nigeria at 4,66,000, Pakistan 3,30,000 and Democratic Republic of Congo 2,33,000 (DRC), the report said. The UNIGME report said 6,05,000 neonatal deaths were reported in India in 2017, while the number of deaths among children aged 5-14 was 1,52,000. "India continues to show impressive decline in child deaths, with its share of global under-five deaths for the first time equalling its share of childbirth," Yasmin Ali Haque, Representative, UNICEF India, said. "The efforts for improving institutional delivery, along with countrywide scale up of special newborn care units and strengthening of routine immunisation, have been instrumental towards this," she said. The number of infant deaths has come down from 8.67 lakh in 2016 to 8.02 lakh in 2017. In 2016, India's infant mortality rate was 44 per 1,000 live births. In 2017, sex-specific under-five mortality rate was 39 in 1,000 live births for male and 40 in 1,000 live births for females. "Even more heartening is the four-fold decline in the gender gap in survival of the girl child over the last five years," Haque said. The under-five mortality rate in India recorded a positive trend. For the first time in five years, the under-five mortality rate was recorded below one million in 2017 at 9,89,000, according to the report. In 2016, the under-five mortality was recorded at 1.08 million in India. The investment on ensuring holistic nutrition under the POSHAN campaign and national commitment to make India open defecation-free by 2019 are steps that will help in accelerating progress further, she added. Priti Mahara, Director of Policy, Research and Advocacy at CRY – Child Rights and You, said India is still not in a position to celebrate the fall in number of infant and newborn deaths. "India still ranks 100th out of 119 countries on the Global Hunger Index and the hunger level is driven by high child malnutrition. A much stronger commitment is required to address it holistically, both by the State and the civil society – more so, as the aspect of food security for all children calls for special attention," Mahara said. "Traditionally, there has been a significant association between the lack of household food security and the condition of children being underweight and stunted; and diseases and morbidity accompanied with acute malnutrition are the intrinsic causes of many of the cases of infant death," she explained. Also Read: 2+2 talks: India, US ink critical def pact; discuss cross-border terror, H1B "There are gaps between availability and utilisation, with regards to access to health and nutrition services of women and children. Although schemes and programmes like the Antyodaya Anna Yojana under PDS and supplementary feeding under Integrated Child Development Services exist, but the utilisation, dictated by awareness and perception of quality, has a long way to go," she said. (PTI)
