Malda Medical College and Hospital in West Bengal earned the sobriquet Horror Hospital for record-shattering crib deaths: around100 in January 2012 and now 25 in four days during November end.
United Nations MillenniumDevelopment Goal ( MDG) aims to reduce under five mortality rate(U5MR) by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015 as agreed upon by 191 member-countries when they signed the UN Millennium Declaration in September 2000. But the findings of a recent study by the Indian Council of Medical Research, the National Institute of Medical Sciences , and the UNICEF indicate that only six states are likely to realise the MDG and India as a whole may fall short of achieving this goal.of 39 deaths per 1,000 live births from 109 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990. The six states are Kerala(12 in2012 to 11 in 2015), Tamilnadu (22 to 19), Maharashtra(28 to 26), Punjab (33 to 30), Himachal Pradesh (38 to 35), and Karnataka (37 to 34 ). But the government of India is confident that the country would achieve the MDG as the U5MR now is around 46 per 1,000 live births.
In India,2.1 million children die before their fifth birthday and half of these children die even before they are 28 days old. UNICEF estimated that India accounted for about 21 percent of under- five children 's deaths worldwide in 2009. Survival of children depends on good quality care during pregnancy of mothers, efficient per-natal care,education of girls at least up to tenth standard,delay in the age of marriage, adequate spacing between births,empowerment of women, and good Public Health Service. Union Minister Jairam Ramesh admitted recently that the public health system in India had collapsed.In many parts of India Public Health Service does not even exist.
Health indices of Kerala are comparable to those of many developed countries. It is an exception among the Indian states. An effective village administration,an efficient public health system, an uncompromising insistence of accountability from the service providers by the people , and an alert media are additional strengths of the state. Let the other Indian states emulate Kerala.
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