Child mortality rates in India remain much higher than in other countries. In 2010, over one and a half million under-fives died in India, which is almost 22 percent of all under-five deaths in the world. Other countries in the South Asian region, such as Pakistan, also contribute to an alarmingly high death rate among this age group, according to a new report by the World Health Organisation and Unicef.

The report states that in the past two decades, child mortality rates worldwide have dropped sharply. The number of under-five deaths worldwide decreased from more than 12 million in 1990 to 7.6 million in 2010, or 21,000 children a day.

India
Despite a considerable drop in its mortality rates since 1990, India’s figures remain high.

In 1990, more than eleven percent of Indian babies did not reach their fifth birthday. While this has now dropped to 6.3 percent (or 1.6 million children), it is still considerably higher compared to other countries worldwide.

In fact, India’s mortality rates are the highest in the world. In the South Asian region, one in 15 children die before reaching the age of five. That compares with one in 143 children in developed countries. The South Asian region and the sub-Saharan African region both account for over 80 percent of worldwide child deaths.

Insufficient
The WHO says in its report that India and other countries in the Southern Asian region, including Pakistan, have made insufficient progress since 1990.

“We have seen a big reduction in child mortality rates worldwide, thanks to improved health services, nutrition, immunization, and water and sanitation facilities,” says Dr Margaret Chan, WHO’s Director General.

“But it’s worrying to see that under-five deaths are increasingly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.”
 

Greater investment
The report does not state why India is lagging behind in improving the survival rates for under-fives.

“Focusing on greater investment on the most disadvantaged communities will help us save more children's lives, more quickly and more cost effectively," says Anthony Lake, executive director of Unicef, in a statement.
 

Millennium Goal
In its report, The WHO says it is highly unlikely India and other South Asian countries will be able to reach its Millennium Goal on child mortality, which states that India’s mortality rate needs to drop to 3.8 percent in 2015.
 

Improvements
Despite India’s poor figures, the report also offers a bit of good news from the South Asia region:  Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh recorded spectacular improvements compared to 1990, with drops in child mortality rates of over sixty percent.