Millennium Development Goal: Infant Mortality

Millennium Development Goal: Infant Mortality Current Position, Policy and Actions for Achieving the Goal

Introduction A newly born child, fragile and tender, needs care and protection to tide over the environmental challenges around him and. Evidence suggests that the survival of infants is mainly influenced by the external environment in which the infant lives (P P. , 2011). Survival of infants continues to be a challenge worldwide despite advances in medical sciences and understanding of the role of hygiene and sanitation; hence, non-health policies targeting the socioeconomic environment are as important as health policies for infant mortality (Marmot M.G, 2006). Infant mortality is an indicator of population health and a measure of

al. compared the states in India having five highest and the five lowest IMRs during the period 1981-2000. They found that decrease in infant mortality rate in five highest infant mortality states in 1981-83 has been faster than the decline in infant mortality in the five lowest infant mortality states. However these declines in IMRs also show a difference in rural to urban settings. In the urban population, IMRs in the five lowest infant mortality states have decreased faster than in five highest infant mortality states, resultantly inter-state inequality in urban infant mortality has increased. However in states with highest infant mortality, between 1981-83, has resulted in a decrease in the inter-state inequality. The median decrease in total infant mortality rate in states having lowest and the highest infant mortality in 1981-83 was 39.92 per cent and 54.16 per cent respectively. Similarly, the median decrease in rural infant mortality rate in states with lowest rural infant mortality and in states with highest infant mortality in 1981-83 was 39.96 and 54.73 per cent respectively; the corresponding figures for the urban infant mortality rate being 46.73 and 41.56 per cent respectively (Chaurasia, 2005). Kerala in India has the lowest infant mortality rates and recorded IMR of 7 against the national average of 34 in 2013(Indian Academy of

Reduction of infant mortality in children of educated mother was through increased use of maternal and child health (MCH) services (Gokhale MK1, 2002). The literacy level of women in the reproductive age group (15–49 years) in India is just 55%. Illiteracy in mothers doubles the IMR. The rate of antenatal care and institutional delivery is higher in women who are educated (A Chatterjee, 2011). Perhaps the lower incidence of mortality rates in literate women results from a combination of the factors like better assertion of fertility choices, antenatal care, care of the new born and the accessibility to health services.
Age of Marriage and Infant Mortality
Early marriages in India are a tradition; the legal age of marriage age for girls in India is 18 years. By contrast 16% of women in the age group of 15 –19 are already pregnant. Teen age mothers have a high IMR of 77. Pregnancy in teenage girls is twice as common in rural areas as in urban areas in India (A Chatterjee, 2011). Women those who marry at an early age also give birth to children at a younger age and the age of mother at the time of child birth is also one of the important factors in determining