State-wise Child Mortality Rate in India

• Half of all under-5 deaths occurred in three states: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh. 
• Assam had the highest under-5 mortality rates with 73.1 per 1,000 live births, Madhya Pradesh (67.1 per1000 livebirths), and Odisha (64·1 per 1000 livebirths), on the other hand, the lowest rates were in Goa (9·7 per 1000 livebirths), Kerala (12·5 per 1000 live births) and Tamil Nadu (21·7 per 1000 live births).

According to UNICEF Neonatal Mortality rate (NMR) globally in 2018 was 18 deaths per 1000 live births while in India it was 23 deaths per 1000 live births so per day approximately 7000 newborn deaths.
It is a global concern that the NMR is declining at a very slow pace.

Worldwide substantial measures have been taken to control the Child mortality rate. As a result, the global under-5 mortality rate has dropped by 60% since 1990, from 93 deaths per 1000 live births in 1990 to 37 in 2020. However, out of 5 million Child mortality under 5 years globally in 2020, Nigeria and India solely account for almost one-third of all deaths.

Infectious diseases, pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria, pre-term birth complications, birth asphyxia and trauma, and congenital anomalies remain the leading causes of death for children under 5 years. India needs to understand, the major cause of concern and evaluate carefully the complications involved in providing health services to secluded interior regions.

To combat Child Mortality, it is important to incorporate basic lifesaving infrastructures such as skilled delivery at birth, postnatal care, breastfeeding and adequate nutrition, access to vaccine-preventable deaths, reduce geographical disparities, and treatment for common childhood diseases. 

Child Mortality: Though the current Child Mortality rate dropped by 59% since 1990, from 93 deaths per 1000 live births in 1990 to 38 in 2021, Child Mortality is still one of the major challenges to the World. According to the Latest data for 2020, the Child Mortality rate of Somalia is 114.6%, leading top in this list, followed by Nigeria (113.8%), and Chad (110%). Among the continents, the Child Mortality rate of Africa is the highest in the world at 74 deaths per 1000 live births, and it is 14 times higher than the total Child Mortality rate of Europe and North America.

In this article, you will read about child mortality, its causes, steps to handle it, and the child mortality rate in India.