Better facilities required to lower child mortality: Activists

Various international bodies and NGOs that work with children's and mother's health said practices need to be changed and facilities need to be upgraded to reduce child mortality.

The reaction comes as the state government on Monday announced in the assembly that 483 children in Mumbai died within 24 hours of birth. In the state, the figure stood at 3,778. "Our state actually figures better on national average when it comes to child mortality. However, there are certain pockets that bring down the average," said Rajeshwari Chandrasekar, chief, Unicef Maharashtra.

Chandrasekar added, "There is not just one reason for this. The number of deaths are high because breast feeding is less, marriage is happening at an young age, pregnancy is frequent and body of the woman is not sufficiently nourished. Twenty six per cent are married before the age of 18, which is a very high figure."

Lack of facilities in slum areas was also one of the reasons. "In tribal areas, to keep the mother and son warm, sometimes coal is burnt. This leads to respiratory issues. These practices need to be changed."

Pratibha Shinde, general secretary of Lok Sangharsha Morcha, which works in the area of tribal malnutrition in Nandurbar, said: "Infant mortality and malnutrition does not get highlighted as much in urban areas, as it does in rural areas. There is also lack of awareness and nutrition and widespread ignorance about it in urban pockets."

"The most common causes due to which a child dies within 24 hours are asphyxia, pre-maturity and congenital anomaly, birth defect. When the child does not cry immediately after being born, we think it's mostly due to asphyxiation. External infection might also be another reason for the death of a child, within a day," said a senior medical officer of Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College and Hospital.