India showing steady progress in reducing child deaths amid slowing global gains: report, Pg12

Key Highlights:

• An estimated 4.9 million children worldwide died before age five in 2024, including 2.3 million newborns.
• Global under-five deaths have decreased by over half since 2000, but the rate of reduction has slowed by over 60% since 2015.
• India has demonstrated steady progress in reducing child mortality through sustained public health efforts.
• India's Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) decreased from 57 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 17 in 2024.
• India's Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) sharply declined from 127 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 27 in 2024.
• An estimated 2.1 million children, adolescents, and youth aged 5-24 died in 2024.

Detailed Insights:

• The reduction in India's NMR and U5MR is attributed to targeted public health interventions, improved institutional delivery systems, and expanded immunisation coverage.
• Globally, infectious diseases and injuries are leading causes of death among younger children, while self-harm is the leading cause among girls aged 15 to 19, and road traffic injuries among boys.
• Severe acute malnutrition directly caused over 100,000 deaths in children aged 1-59 months in 2024, with the toll being far greater when indirect effects are considered.
• Newborn deaths account for nearly half of all under-five deaths, with complications from preterm birth (36%) and complications during labor and delivery (21%) being the leading causes.
• Beyond the first month, infectious diseases like malaria, diarrhoea, and pneumonia are major killers, with malaria being the single largest killer in this age group (17%), particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 58% of all under-five deaths in 2024.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR): The number of deaths of infants under 28 days of age per 1,000 live births in a given year.
• Under-5 Mortality Rate (U5MR): The probability of a child born in a specific year dying before reaching the age of five.
• Severe Acute Malnutrition: A life-threatening condition resulting from extreme deficiency in nutrient intake.