Infant deaths: India retains dismal record

Nearly one-third of deaths of children under the age of five years happens in India and Nigeria, says a report.

A UNICEF report titled Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed observes that in 2011 about half of   deaths of children under the age of five years occurred in just five countries — India, Nigeria, the Congo, Pakistan and China. A third of all deaths came from just India and Nigeria.

In India, where 61 children under the age of five years die for every 1,000 live births, the latest UNICEF report warns that India is nowhere close to achieving set targets to reduce infant mortality rate globally.

Even as India is one of the three countries, including Ethiopia and the US, who have partnered with UNICEF to examine ways to spur progress on child survival, the child mortality rates in the country paint a dismal picture.  “India will not be able to achieve the target of restricting deaths to below 20 per 1,000 live births till 2035 at the current rate of reduction,” the report says.