1,000 Indian children die of diarrhoea every day: report

NEW DELHI: One out of every five children who die of diarrhoea worldwide is an Indian.

Minister for Rural Development Raaghuvansh Prasad Singh Tuesday said that every day around 1,000 children die of diarrhoea in India, which means 41 children lose their lives every 60 minutes.

"Globally, some 1.8 million children die each year as a result of diarrhoea, which means 4,900 deaths every day. In India, close to 1,000 children die every day," Singh said.

The minister was speaking at the second International Learning Exchange (ILE) programme on water, sanitation and hygiene here.

Quoting a United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) report on the disease, he said: "Deaths from diarrhoea in 2004 were some six times greater than the average annual deaths in armed conflicts globally."

Asked about the current outbreak of cholera in Orissa, in which over 150 people have lost their live