The under-5 mortality rate halved between 2000 and 2017 | India News

NEW DELHI: Two scientific papers on child survival released Tuesday by India’s Statewide Burden of Disease Initiative showed a significant decrease, 49%, in the under-5 mortality rate (U5MR) between 2000 and 2017 , but noted the inequality between states and wide variations between districts.
While there is a 5-6-fold variation in rates across states, there is also an 8-11-fold variation across districts, the report published in The Lancet noted. The initiative is driven by Indian Medical Research Council and the Public Health Foundation of India, among others.

The results show that there were 1.04 million children under 5 years of age. deceased in 2017, below 2.24 million deaths in 2000
The majority of deaths of children under 5 in UP, Bihar comes second
Neonatal deaths in India have decreased from 1.02 million deaths in 2000 to 0.57 million in 2017. The neonatal mortality rate (MRI) has decreased by 38% in India since 2000. It is attributed 68% of deaths of children under 5 in India. to child and maternal malnutrition, while 83% of neonatal deaths at low birth weight and short gestation.
The highest number of deaths of children under 5 in 2017 occurred in UP (312,800, which included 165,800 neonatal deaths) and Bihar (141,500, including 75,300 neonatal deaths).
U5MR and NMR were lower with the increasing level of development of the states. In 2017, there was a 5.7-fold variation in U5MR that ranged from 10 per 1,000 live births in the most developed state of Kerala to 60 in less developed UP, and a 4.5-fold variation for MRI ranging from 7 per 1,000 live births in Kerala to 32 in UP.
“Research work has shown that India has made positive strides in protecting the lives of newborns in the past two decades.” Niti Member of Aayog V K Paul said.