BHUBANESWAR: The State has been able to bring down the infant mortality rate (IMR) by 20 points as against 15 points at the national level.
A review on the performance of the IMR Mission by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here today revealed that IMR rate, which was 93 per 1,000 live births in 2001, has come down to 71 per 1,000 live births by 2007.
This WHO annual health report looks at 100 statistics provided by 193 member countries. This year it provides the first assessment of MDGs progress and reveals that deaths of children aged under five years have dropped by 27% globally since 1990.
Although the country has made significant progress in reducing under-five child mortality, the rates of neonatal and maternal mortality still remain high, creating obstacle to achieving the target of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) four and five by 2015.
Mainstreaming the ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha, homeopathy systems should imply deep changes in maternity care. Big changes there are, but in the wrong direction. Aiming to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality, the National Rural Health Mission
World Health Day quietly slipped away on Tuesday with no formal programme being organised by the state Health department. Officials attributed the memory loss to the fact that it coincided with a gazetted holiday.
Between India Shining and Jai Ho, through four years of high growth that India became the story of global markets, not much has changed on the ground, it would seem. Between aspirational Indians vying for better and richer lifestyles, there are millions still below the poverty line.
India trails badly on the human development indicators. Illustration: Saurabh Singh
Immunisation programmes make little headway in last five years
Despite over 8% GDP growth for past four years, infant mortality rate dropped marginally from 58 in 2004 to 54 in 2008
Bhanu Pande NEW DELHI
