Is India Doing Enough For Its Children?

Is India Doing Enough For Its Children?

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2020256,00.html

This article addresses concern if India, especially in the poorer and marginalized locations, is doing enough for its newborns. Giving statistics such as: India accounting for 20% of the world’s child mortality and of the 26 million children born each year nearly two million still die before age five. Half of those deaths occur within a month of birth from preventable causes like malnutrition, diarrhea and pneumonia.48% of Indian children under the age of 5 are malnourished.

The article was published just in time for the UN summit that is taking place this week. There will be discussion of the Millennium Development Goals, which prompted me to look at India’s progress within each goal. Reducing child mortality is currently “off track.”

http://www.mdgmonitor.org/country_progress.cfm?c=IND&cd=356

The article also touches on areas in India, like the state of Kerala, where the under-5 mortality rate is 14 deaths per every 1,000 (compared to 92 per 1,000 in Madhya Pradesh). It also tells us that results from a recent survey showed that 80% of Indians were unaware of the large number of children dying every year. This is alarming, and makes me wonder, what is happening in Kerala that leads them to have a better child mortality rate, makes them better educated, be better fed, have longer life spans, and just have a better quality of life in general? Clearly they are doing something right in the south, so why can’t the rest of India follow in that example. Alarming it is, when India is climbing the charts on economic power in the world and is emerging as one of our world leaders. Let us learn on this trip how our villages, or how NGO’s in Kerala are helping their women become better educated in maternal health and how they are able (or struggling) to feed their children everyday.