2.1 million children died in India in 2006 before they turned five- TEHELKA STORY

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Born To Die

 

UNICEF says 2.1 million children died in India in 2006 before they turned five

 

BETWA SHARMA

 

India needs to drastically reduce the death of children under the age of five,

for the world to attain the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

by 2015, said a groundbreaking report issued by the United Nations Children’s

Fund (UNICEF)

“More than for any other single nation, India’s progress on child survival

is pivotal to meeting the health-related MDGs,†the report said.

 

The eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals range from halving extreme

poverty to providing universal primary education by 2015. The health-related

MDGs entail reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and combating

HIV-AIDS.

 

Reducing child mortality, also called MDG 4, requires reducing the global rate

of under-five deaths by two-thirds from 1990 level by 2015.

 

India is home to 20 percent of the world’s under-fives and was responsible for

2.1 million deaths in 2006, which accounted for one-fifth of the children who

died before their fifth birthday.

 

“Global attainment of the health-related MDGs will depend, in no small part,

on India’s achievements in improving health, nutrition, water and sanitation,

education and child protection, gender equality and women’s empowerment in the

coming years, " the report stressed.

 

Every year UNICEF releases the State of the World's Children but this year the

agency also published its first report for the Asia Pacific region called 'The

State of Asia-Pacific’s Children', which specifically covers East and South

Asia, South-East Asia and the Pacific. While East Asia and South East Asia are

on track to meet the MDGs, South Asia and the Pacific are lagging far behind.

On the whole the number of under five-deaths has fallen from 6.7 million in 1990

to around four million in 2006 in Asia Pacific. Despite this decline the

absolute numbers of child deaths in the region remains high, according to the

report. The data revealed this in 2006: out of the 9.7 million children who died

globally before turning five, more than 40 percent were from the Asia-Pacific.

 

While in 1990, the under-five child mortality rate in the Asia-Pacific stood at

90 deaths per 1000 live births, it came down to 59 per 1,000 live births in

2006. However, the report stated that the death rate should be 30 deaths per

1,000 live births to meet the target.

 

“It is clear that the region as a whole will have to reduce the number of

child deaths between 2007 and 2015 at a much faster rate than it has managed

since 1990, to meet MDG 4,†it said.

 

China, India and Pakistan account for half the deaths in the region, according

to the report. As mentioned earlier, India accounted for 2.1 million deaths in

2006 and 415,000 children died in China.

 

The survey showed that since 1960, the country has managed to reduce the death

rate from 236 deaths per 1000 live births to 76 per 1,000 live births, in 2006.

A growing economy has enabled India to reduce the under-five mortality rate by

one-third since 1990- but it isn’t enough.

 

“Despite these gains, at its current rate of progress, India is unlikely to

meet the MDGs related to enhancing nutrition (MDG 1), reducing child mortality

(MDG 4), improving maternal health (MDG 5),†the report confirmed.

UNICEF blamed the child-deaths mainly on poor heath-services. It highlighted

that South Asia spends only 1.1 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on

public health expenditure, much below the world average of 5.1 percent.

India’s budget, this year, allocated 16,534 crores to the health sector, a 15

percent increase from the year before, but it still is only one percent of the

GDP.

The children’s agency also pointed out that increasing privatisation of health

services in the country had led to a deterioration of government facilities.

Growing disparities left poor people with no access to hospitals, and health

workers were moving to the greener pastures of the private sector.

All this contributed to the poor health of India’s children who mostly die

from malnutrition and preventable diseases like pneumonia and diarrhoea. Another

key reason for their susceptibility to disease is that more than half the

children between one and two years, do not receive all recommended vaccinations.

 

“More than 50 percent of this country’s under-five deaths are associated

with under-nutrition and anaemia, while another 30 per cent are caused by

pneumonia,†the data showed. Further, an estimated nine percent of children

are suffering from diarrhoeal diseases.

 

While the report attributed most of the children’s deaths to malnutrition and

lack of health services in India, it also blamed the high mortality rate on

wider issues of gender inequality, discrimination (in access to nutrition) and

poor education.

 

In India, this added up to one out of every three women being underweight, which

leads to low-weight babies who are more likely to die in infancy. Further, the

country’s 55 million underweight children account for one-third of the world's

underweight children in that age group.

The study also showed that South Asia is also the only region in the world where

female life expectancy is lower than the male’s. The region also has a massive

gender imbalance in population numbers, with around 50 million more men than

women. More than 20 million girls are deprived of an education every year in the

sub-continent.

The greatest cause of under-five deaths in Asia-Pacific stem from deaths

occurring in the neo-natal period –the first 28 days of life. Neo-natal deaths

accounted for almost 40 percent of all under-five deaths in 2000 in the world.

 

“The largest absolute number of newborn deaths in the world occurs in South

Asia. India contributes around one quarter of the global total,†the reports

said.

 

“A significant underlying cause of these deaths is poor foetal growth and low

birthweight, the end result of several deficiencies, notably maternal

under-nutrition and incorrect breastfeeding practices,†it added.

 

As the world draws closer to the 2015 deadline, the report called for action to

increase investment in public health services, focusing on areas where child

mortality is the highest. UNICEF recommended boosting public health care

spending in the region by two percent so that poor people have access to

hospitals providing sustained health care from the time they are born through to

their adolescence.