Why We Need Swachh Bharat: India’s Infant Mortality Rate Down, But Still The Highest In The World, Says UN Report

With 8.02 lakh infant deaths in 2017, India has the highest number child mortality in the world, according to a UN report, The Pioneer has reported. The report was prepared by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNIGME). The number of infant deaths fell from 8.67 lakh in 2016 to 8.02 lakh in 2017. This is the least number of infant deaths in five years.

“Despite progress over the past quarter-century, millions of newborns, children and young adolescents die every year, mostly of preventable or treatable causes such as infectious diseases and injuries. These deaths reflect the limited access of children and communities to basic health interventions such as vaccination, medical treatment of infectious diseases, adequate nutrition and clean water and sanitation”, the UN report on “ Levels & Trends in Child Mortality” remarked.

Chief of Health at the World Health Organisation, Dr Gagan Gupta, said that India is making steady progress in combating causes of infant mortality through numerous 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 has 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,” Dr Gagan Gupta said.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has lauded India’s progress in bringing down the under-five mortality ratio and credited the government’s push for vaccination for the trend.

The condition in India has improved at a rate that outpaces the global decline and the country’s share of global child deaths has come down from 22 per cent in 2012 to 18 per cent in 2017.