1.45 million children dies before their fifth birthday. Photo Courtesy: usatoday.com
The economic growth of a country determines the rate of development of a country. India has now rapid economic growth with GDP of 1500 billion $ but still 9,00,000 newborn children die every year in India. Almost one child dies every minute in the country.
Every year, 1.45 million children do not live to celebrate their 5th birthday and 55,000 women die during and after childbirth in India. Of every 100 children born in India, 4.4 of them die before their first birthday. 48 of them are stunned, 43 are underweight, and 39 are not fully immunized. Those who win over all these difficulties, 49 of them live without adequate sanitation.
Infant mortality is even higher than maternal mortality. Photo Courtesy: Mint.com
Globally, more than one-third of child deaths are attributed to the cause of undernutrition. The major causes of deaths in children under 5 years are prematurity, birth asphyxia, sepsis, pneumonia, diarrhea. The biggest among these is malnutrition. These cases are more prevalent in rural India and the poor section of society. Early marriage and then early childbearing is very common in rural areas and among the poor. This has a serious effect on the child which is borne by young girls who are too young to carry this whole process from pregnancy to delivery.
Due to poverty, most girls start working from their young age. Since, they have no educational qualification or any other skill; usually they end up doing labour work. They can’t afford to stop working even after their pregnancy. In such cases, the peril of physical stress and depletion results into unsafe motherhood.
Undernutrition, respiratory infections, lack of immunization and health facilities are the underlying causes of newborn deaths. However, most of these deaths are preventable if the government makes the proper arrangements of health centers and qualified doctors at the centers. Children are said to be the future of a country. If the health of a child remains so threatened right from their childhood, what can we expect for their future? Right to survival is their basic right, and if it is no fulfilled, then it is a violation of their right.
the verdict 