Hyderabad: The planning commission has cautioned the state government over the high maternal and infant mortality in one fifth of the state and asked it to take effective remedial measures.
Even as the toll in infant deaths in Malda Medical College Hospital rose to 14, a three-member expert team on Sunday ascertained that the casualties were caused due to malnutrition and low weight.
Globally, Pakistan has the third highest burden of maternal, fetal, and child mortality. It has made slow progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5 and in addressing common social determinants of health. The country also has huge challenges of political fragility, complex security issues, and natural disasters. We undertook an in-depth analysis of Pakistan’s progress towards MDGs 4 and 5 and the principal determinants of health in relation to reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition.
Often criticised for its dismal efforts in preventing infant deaths, India, according to the latest Sample Registration System (SRS) data, has succeeded in reducing deaths of newborns aged 28 days or less.
The data shows that in 2011, the country's neonatal mortality rate (NMR) stood at 31 per 1,000 live births, down six per cent from 33 in 2010. The figure had remained at 37 for the period 2004-07.
Slum-dwellers in cities will now be able to avail health facilities
Urban poor, especially those living in slums, will now have access to primary healthcare services in cities and towns with the Cabinet recently approving the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) to function as a sub-mission under the overarching National Health Mission which also caters to rural populations.
To be implemented in 779 cities and towns with over 50,000 population, the NUHM aims to cover 7.75 crore people. Meant for the urban poor, it will primarily target the urban slum population of 68 million (6 crore) as revealed by the 2011 Census.
A common continuing criticism of the economic reforms in India has been that despite accelerated growth and all-around poverty reduction, the country continues to suffer from worse child malnutrition than nearly all Sub-Saharan African countries with lower per capita incomes. This paper argues that this narrative, nearly universally accepted around the world, is false. It is the artefact of a faulty methodology that the World Health Organisation has pushed and the United Nations has supported.
Uttarakhand continues to perform well and Uttar Pradesh poorly on key health indicators as per the findings of the Annual Health Survey (AHS) conducted in 284 districts of nine States.
The nine States for which health indicators were released on Friday constitute 50 per cent of the country’s population. While Shravasti district of Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) – the number of deaths of children less than one year of age per 1000 live births – of 100, three districts of Almora, Pithoragarh and Rudraprayag in Uttarakhand recorded a comparatively low IMR of 20.
