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More than 2 million children die in India in 2006: Unicef

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-06 16:24

NEW DELHI - A total of 2.1 million child deaths occurred in India in 2006, the UNICEF said in its latest report, State of Asia Pacific's Children 2008, which examines the latest trends in child and maternal health, the Indian Express reported Wednesday.

This undated file photo shows starving kids in India. [Agencies]

The report said India should achieves major improvements in health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, gender equality and child protection.

While child mortality rates have declined in India, there are massive disparities in the availability of healthcare across different socio-economic strata, it said.

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"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 said, adding that pneumonia, diarrhoea and malnutrition are major causes of child death in the region.

Also, in India, one out of every three women is underweight, which put them at risk of having low-birth-weight babies, who are 20 times more likely to die in infancy than healthy babies.

With regard to prevalent gender disparities, the report said, " south Asia is the only sub-region in the world where female life expectancy is lower than male and where girls are more likely to be underweight than boys."

It went on to underline a disturbing trend across the region, noting that public health expenditure remains well below the world average of 5.1 percent, with South Asia spending only 1.1 percent of its GDP.

"What is needed is political will and sound strategies to dramatically increase investment in public health services that specifically target the poorest," it said.