India Bends Curve on Child Health

Friday, March 1, 2013

India is making positive strides in reducing child mortality through new policies and ambitious programs, but preventing the deaths of millions of children remains one of the country’s greatest challenges.

Roughly 1.7 million children under five years old die every year in India, says Unicef, representing more than a fifth of all child deaths worldwide. Most of these deaths are preventable as they stem from complications at birth, pneumonia, diarrhea and malnutrition.

Earlier this month, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad hailed India’s commitment to work to ensure that no child dies of preventable causes. Extending this latest push on child health, Congress party President Sonia Gandhi launched a program under the Health Ministry that aims to provide comprehensive care to 270 million children every year.

Source: The Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Health Care
Tags
public health