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'The State of Asia-Pacific's Children 2008' examines the latest trends in child and maternal health in the Asia-Pacific region and assesses whether countries will be able to meet the Millennium Development Goals that their governments pledged to meet in 2000
Globally, India has the largest population of under-5s (127 million), and the greatest number of under-5 deaths (2.1 million) in 2006. Of the 19 million low-birth-weight infants born in South Asia, 8.3 million are in India alone. These findings are part of ‘The State of Asia-Pacific’s Children 2008’ brought out by Unicef. The report examines the latest trends in child and maternal health in the Asia-Pacific region and assesses whether countries will be able to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that their governments pledged to meet in 2000. Unless there are major improvements in health, nutrition, water and sanitation in India and China, the region will not be able to meet the health-related MDGs, the report says. Like other recent reports this one too stresses the disparities in accessing healthcare. ‘The divide between rich and poor is rising at a troubling rate leaving vast numbers of mothers and children at risk of increasing relative poverty and continued exclusion from quality primary healthcare services,’ the report states. Other findings of the report: - In India, one out of every three women is underweight putting them at risk of having low-birth-weight babies who are 20 times more likely to die in infancy than healthy babies.
- The poor nutritional status and health of mothers in India is due to systemic gender discrimination.
- More than 50% of India’s under-5 deaths are associated with undernutrition and anaemia, while another 30% are caused by pneumonia.
- In 2004, only 30% of India’s population had access to adequate sanitation (22% in rural areas).
- More than half of all children between one and two years are not receiving the recommended vaccinations.
- Diarrhoeal diseases remain a serious threat to child survival, with an estimated 9% of children suffering from this condition in India.
- Bangladesh, India and Pakistan together account for half the world’s underweight children while hosting only 29% of the developing world’s under-5 population.
- South Asia is the only region in the world where female life expectancy is lower than male expectancy, and where girls are more likely to be underweight than boys.
- Across the region, public health expenditure remains well below the world average of 5.1% of GDP. South Asia spends just 1.1% of GDP on health.
At the state level, infant mortality rates in India range from as high as 73 per 1,000 live births in Uttar Pradesh to as low as 15 per 1,000 live births in the wealthier southern states of Kerala and Goa. Income disparity has been identified as a key determinant of a child’s risk of mortality in the first five years of life. Caste and gender disparities also play an important role in child survival as they determine nutritional levels and access to healthcare for both mother and child. ‘Research has shown repeatedly that the empowerment of women and girls is inextricably linked to improved maternal and child survival rates’ the report emphasises.
Meeting the MDGs
While South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) looks on track to meeting Target 1 of MDG 1, which aims to halve extreme income poverty by 2015, this is mostly due to India’s rapid economic growth in recent years, the report says. It adds, ‘conversely, if India does not meet the health-related MDGs, the region, and the developing world as a whole, will risk missing the targets as well’.
Since 1990, India has managed to reduce its under-5 mortality rate by around one-third, to 76 per 1,000 live births. Despite these gains, at its current rate of progress, India is unlikely to meet the targets of the MDGs related to enhancing nutrition (MDG 1), reducing child mortality (MDG 4), improving maternal health (MDG 5) and ensuring environmental sustainability through improved sanitation facilities (MDG 7). This is due, in no small part, to continued lack of adequate and comprehensive primary healthcare services and facilities, and to undernutrition, the report says.
‘The State of Asia-Pacific’s Children 2008’ is the first annual regional perspective from Unicef to supplement the comprehensive ‘State of the World’s Children’ report that it compiles every year. Source: ‘The State of Asia-Pacific’s Children 2008’
(http://www.unicef.org/sapc08/docs/SAPC_Full_Report.pdf)
The Indian Express, August 7, 2008
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