More than 400,000 Indian babies die every year from preventable causes within 24 hours of their birth, despite the country’s recent rapid economic development, a report said yesterday.
India accounts for a fifth of all newborn deaths worldwide, said the major report published by charity Save the Children to launch a global campaign to reduce infant mortality.
Government initiatives in India to provide basic health care to all have not changed the grim reality for the nation’s babies, said Thomas Chandy, head of Save the Children in India.
PHOTO: AFP
“Although the schemes are there and the intention and allocation of resources is there, in many places they are not reaching out to people,” he said. “Every child, no matter where or to whom they are born, has an equal right and deserves an equal chance to survive. And every one of us has a moral responsibility to act and act now.”
The report, gathered from research in 14 countries, calculated that globally 2 million children die each year within 24 hours of birth — one every 15 seconds.
India’s child mortality statistics are particularly stark, with 72 deaths per 1,000 live births, higher than neighboring countries such as Bangladesh.
And more than 2 million Indian children die each year before their fifth birthday.
Major causes of death in the first years of life include malnutrition, pneumonia and diarrhea — afflictions that are cheap and easy to cure.
“I’ve had four children, but I lost my second child when he was just two days’ old,” Mewa, a 25-year-old mother who has tuberculosis and lives in Ajmer in Rajasthan, told Save the Children. “I don’t know why my son passed away. He wasn’t even ill. I guess if I could know one thing, I’d like to know what treatments there are that I could use for my children. That’s all.”
Low-cost solutions could reduce neonatal mortality by up to 70 percent, but public reluctance to fund increased health costs has stopped the Indian government from taking action, the report’s authors concluded.
“Change is indeed possible. If people understood how affordable and feasible it is to prevent children dying, they’d be shocked,” Chandy said.
India has clocked a decade of rapid economic growth that has allowed it to boost spending on poor and rural communities, but Save the Children said most such programs had not benefited those most in need.
More than half of all Indian women give birth without the help of skilled health care professionals, leading to infections and complications.
In far-flung areas, doctors and hospitals are rare and villagers often put the health of their children in the hands of poorly trained substitutes.
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