The millennium development goals (MDGs) have been widely accepted as a framework for improving health and welfare worldwide. Child mortality is one of the most crucial and avoidable global health concerns. In many low income countries, 10-20% of children die before reaching 5 years of age . The child mortality in MDG (to reduce the under 5 mortality rate by two thirds between 1990 and 2015) is formulated as a national average.(UN- child mortality report -2012) Child mortality, also known as under-5 mortality, refers to the death of infants and children under the age of five. In 2011, 6.9 million children under five died, down from 7.6 million in 2010, 8.1 million in 2009, and 12.4 million in 1990. Reduction of child mortality is the fourth of the United Nations ' Millennium Development Goals.(UNICEF-Press release-Sept17-2010) As per the Millennium Development 4 Goals (MDG) India has to reduce its Child Mortality Rate (CMR) by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. It implies that India has to reduce its under five mortality rate to 38 per 1000 live births by 2015 (UNICEF SOWC 2008) to achieve the MDGs. However, the office of the registrar general of India has recently cautioned that, after a rapid decline during 1980-90, the IMR in India has stagnated since 1993 at the level of 72 [GoI 2000] This means that the programs which addressed the problem of child mortality (reproductive and child health program, immunization program, ICDS) were no longer effective in further reducing the IMR, and a larger proportion of infant deaths were now contributed by neonatal deaths because this component is influenced little by the current programs [GoI 2000]. India has made progress in the reduction of child mortality with the average annual rate of reduction in U5 mortality between 1990 and 2006 being around 2.6 per cent. If India is to reach the MDG Goal of 38 by 2015, the average annual rate of reduction over the next
References: Reducing child mortality in India in the new millennium Mariam Claeson,1 Eduard R. Bos,2 Tazim Mawji,3 & Indra Pathmanathan4 INFANT AND CHILD MORTALITY 8 Macleod W. Mwale MoHFW (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare), 2007. Annual Report 2006-2007, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi. Ram, F., Chander Shekhar and S.K. Mohanty, 2005. Human Development: Strengthening district level vital statistics in India, International Institute Population Science, Mumbai. Rao, K.L. and S. Nayak, 2006. Losing Count, Mapping India’s Child Sex Ratio, Population Foundation of India, New Delhi. Return of the Population Growth Factor – Its impact on the Millennium Development Goals,Report of the hearings by the All Infant and Child Mortality in India Arvind Pandey, Minja Kim Choe, Norman Y. Luther, Damodar Sahu, and Jagdish Chand National Family Health Survey Subject Reports Number 11 • December 1998 International Institute for Population Sciences Mumbai, India NIPI Baseline Report – Madhya Pradesh The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010, United Nations; UN MDG Database (mdgs.un.org); MDG Monitor Website (www.mdgmonitor.org), UN Development Programme (UNDP); What Will It Take to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals? – An International Assessment 2010, UNDP; UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) website (www.unicef.org). Maternal & Child Mortality and Total Fertility Rates , Sample Registration System (SRS) Office of Registrar General, India An ecological quantification of the relationships between water, sanitation and infant, child, and maternal mortality June J Cheng , Corinne J Schuster-Wallace, Susan Watt , Bruce K Newbold and Andrew Mente MPIDR WORKING PAPER WP 2011-005 FEBRUARY 2011 (REVISED JANUARY 2012) Bhave SA. Trends in perinatal and neonatal mortality and morbidity in India. Indian Pediatrics Singhal PK et al. Neonatal morbidity and mortality in ICDS urban slums. Indian Pediatrics, 1990 Sachdev HPS, Iyer PU, Bhargava SK. Secular trends in infant and perinatal mortality in India – implications for child survival. Indian Pediatrics, 1991 Suguna Bai NS et al. Perinatal mortality rate in a south Indian population. Journal of the Indian Medical Association, 1991 Desai, Sonalde, and Soumya Alva. 1998. Maternal education and child health: Is there a strong causal relationship? Sanitation and Health : Mara D, Lane J, Scott B, Trouba D (2010) Sanitation and Health. PLoS Med 7(11): e1000363. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000363 Child mortality rate dips marginally in 2010, TOI