How we can reduce under Five Child Mortality in India – An MDG Goal

As per World Health Organization (WHO), the distribution of causes of deaths in Indian child under the age five for the year 2010 is as below:

Disease/ Cause of Death	Pneumonia	Prematurity	Diarrhea	Birth Asphyxia	Other Diseases	Neonatal Sepsis	Congenital Anomalies	Injuries	HIV/ AIDS	Malaria
Percentage to Total	24	20	13	11	11	8	7	3	0	0

In case of India under – 5 mortality rates per 1000 live births (both sexes) is 61 as compared to 55 in case of South East Asia Region to which it belongs and 51 in case of Global average in the year 2011.  Fortunately, Malaria and HIV/AIDS are not at all the major causes of mortality for under five children in India.  By better ANC practices, counseling of would be mothers and more institutional deliveries of the babies can reduce the deaths due to prematurity and birth asphyxia. Postnatal counseling and more efforts by Aganwadi and ASHA workers in rural areas can help in reducing Pneumonia and Diarrhea. India is better equipped with human resources as compared to the South East Asia region, as we has 6.5 Physicians and 10.0 nurses & midwives per 10000 population as compared to 5.5 Physicians and 9.9 nurses & midwives in the region.  By little bit increasing the per capita total expenditure on health we may increase ANC Care (4+ visits) to cover about 10% more coverage of eligible women and by increasing skilled health personnel as birth attendants marginally in order to have comparable results with the region.  By effecting better contraceptive prevalence, we may also achieve the Total Fertility Level (TFR) as that in the region from 2.6 to 2.4.  If we are able to achieve the regional level child mortality rates, then probably we may also achieve the life expectancy at birth level of 67 years (regional) from 65 years.