India tops global list on child mortality: UN

India has earned the dubious distinction of reporting most under-five child mortality in 2011 in the world, says a new United Nations global estimate on child mortality. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Sep 13, 2012, 02:19:08 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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India has earned the dubious distinction of reporting most under-five child mortality in 2011 in the world, says a new United Nations global estimate on child mortality.

The United Nations Children Fund report to be released in New York on Thursday says that 16.55 lakh children below the age of five died in India in 2011, almost six times more than the similar figure for China.

About 2.49 under five deaths were reported from China.

"In 2011, around 50% of global under-five deaths occurred in five countries - India, Nigeria, Congo, Pakistan and China," the report said.

Tracking under five mortality rate since 1990, the UNICEF said that India has made a lot of progress with a 48% decline in the deaths but it was still lower than some other poor countries such as Bangladesh, Rwanda, Nepal and Malawi.

Bangladesh recorded a decline of 66.9% whereas Nepal reported a fall of 64.3%.

That meant that the total number of under-five child deaths was highest in India as compared to several of its poor neighbours such as Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, the report said.

The Indian government - centre and state - have put a lot of focus on improving health and nutritional among children, which has resulted in steep decline in child mortality rate.

The officials said the budget for children have increased manifold since 1990s but admit that the country's 200 backward districts are still the zones for high under five child mortality rates.

"In some of these districts the mortality rate may be even higher than Sub-Saharan Africa," an official said.

Globally, the under five child mortality rate has reduced from nearly 12 million in 1990 to 6.9 million in 2011.

It means that about 14,000 less children died every day as compared to 1990 levels but around 19,000 children still die each day.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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