UN criticizes India over high child death rate

from the International Herald Tribune

More than 2 million Indian children under the age of 5 are dying every year. The UN says it's because of lack of basic care. - Kale

The report by the U.N. Children's Fund focused on the Asia-Pacific region but singled out India — home to 20 percent of the world's children under 5. It also warned that rising inequality between the rich and poor risked undermining gains made in other countries of the region.

While India has made steady progress in recent years, it's "not nearly enough," said UNICEF regional director Daniel Toole, calling on the government to invest significantly more money on health services.

Officials from India's Health Ministry and the Women and Child Welfare Ministry were not immediately available for comment.

In 2006, the last year for which there are full figures, some 2.1 million children under 5, or 76 children per 1,000 live births, died in India, the report said.

Much of this was caused by rampant malnutrition among mothers and children and resources not reaching the poorest segments of the population, it said.

Basic solutions like providing trained midwives or doctors — currently only present at about 30 percent of births — or information on caring for newborn, like keeping them warm, could make a big difference, said Mario Babille, UNICEF's head of health care in India.

The situation was compounded by discrimination against women and lower castes, it said.

"When a young girl is born in India her chances of survival are significantly less," said Toole. Female children were less likely to receive medical care or even have their births registered and this deep discrimination was causing a vicious cycle, he said.

"An unhealthy girl child is likely to be an under-nutritioned mother with low birth weight children," he said.

In traditional Indian society girls are seen as a financial burden, needing huge dowries when they marry that can cripple a family financially. Boys typically remain at home after marrying, helping to care for aging parents. Hinduism also dictates preference, with only men being able to light their parents' funeral pyres.

While other nations in the region have made even less progress than India, India was highlighted because of its huge population, which affects U.N goals of bringing down child deaths by two-thirds by 2015.

The report also singled out Afghanistan, Myanmar and North Korea where violence and international isolation were hampering efforts to bring down mortality rates.

But the report praised China, Thailand, Malaysia, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Nepal who had made great strides in reducing child deaths.

Still, it cautioned against rising financial inequality.

"The divide between rich and poor is rising at a troubling rate within subregions of Asia-Pacific, leaving vast numbers of mothers and children at risk of increasing relative poverty and continued exclusion from quality primary health care," the report said.

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