Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Millennium Development Goals deadline to tackle health issues such as maternal and child mortality rates is just five years away. But there is not much to cheer about it in India as more than 40 per cent of the children in our country below the age of five are underweight.
It means almost every second pre-school child in the country is malnourished or stunted and about a third of babies have low birth weight.
These statistics on child health have refused to budge for more than a decade now and India is left with only five years to meet its promised deadline for the Millennium Development Goals. But 10 years into the race, experts say, there has been some good news when it comes to the maternal mortality rates.
"Analysis did show that India has been doing well with no dramatic results but steadily we have been progressing in reducing MMR at the rate of four per cent a year from 1990 till now. We have brought it down from 600/per 1 lakh live births to less than 230 right now," says Health Secretary Sujata Rao.
But the progress is still partial. While states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have Maternal and child mortality rate as low as 11 cases per year, comparable to the developed nations; Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkahad still have an extreme high maternal mortality and child mortality rate of 500 plus.
The millennium development goal is to reach a figure of less than 100 in the next five years.
"For ensuring rapid reduction in maternal and child mortality, we have identified 250 backward and inaccessible districts accounting for 1/3rd of the population but 70 per cent of infant and maternal mortality," says Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.
"What is important in the next five years is to really focus on those districts that are poorest and where most of the deaths are still occurring. Women need access to healthcare, they need information," says Dr Flavia Bustreo, MD Director of the Geneva-based Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child.
With more than 50 per cent of India's health budget already going directly or indirectly in bringing down the maternal and child mortality rate, the government and other stakeholders have now pledged an additional $ 40 billion to chase the Millennium Development Goals.
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