According to a new UN report, of 7,000 new-born babies who died worldwide everyday last year, highest i. e. 24 per cent were from India, indicating poor maternal health and an inadequate healthcare system in the country.
Globally, everyday in 2016, 15,000 children died before their fifth birthday, 46 per cent of them — or 7,000 babies - died in the first 28 days of life, as per the report ‘levels and Trends in Child Mortality 2017’released recently by UNICEF, the World Health Organisation, the World Bank and the Population Division of UNDESA which make up the Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (IGME).
It said, India is among the five countries which accounted for half of all new-born deaths: India (24 per cent), Pakistan (10 per cent), Nigeria (9 per cent), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (4 per cent) and Ethiopia (3 per cent).
At current trends, 60 million children will die before their fifth birthday between 2017 and 2030, half of them newborns, It noted that although the number of children dying before the age of five is at a new low- 5.6 million in 2016, compared with nearly 9.9 million in 2000 - the proportion of under-five deaths in the newborn period has increased from 41 per cent to 46 per cent during the same period.
“The lives of 50 million children under-five have been saved since 2000, a testament to the serious commitment by governments and development partners to tackle preventable child deaths,” said UNICEF Chief of Health, Stefan Swartling Peterson in a statement here.
“But unless we do more to stop babies from dying the day they are born, or days after their birth, this progress will remain incomplete. We have the knowledge and technologies that are required - we just need to take them where they are most needed,”he said.
Dr Flavia Bustreo, Assistant Director-General for Family, Women’s and Children’s Health at WHO, said, “To achieve universal health coverage and ensure more newborns survive and thrive, we must serve marginalized families”.
“It is unconscionable that in 2017, pregnancy and child birth are still life-threatening conditions for women, and that 7,000 newborns die daily,” said Tim Evans, Senior Director of Health Nutrition and Population at the World Bank Group. “The best measure of success for Universal Health Coverage is that every mother should not only be able to access health care easily, but that it should be quality, affordable care that will ensure a healthy and productive life for her children and family, “ added Evans.