New Delhi: India aims to drastically reduce its newborn deaths--from present 29 per thousand live births to below 10 by 2030--with a new plan unveiled by Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday that spells out six strategies covering preconception to care beyond newborn's survival.
India Newborn Action Plan, Vardhan said, will put in practice six evidence-based strategies while expressing confidence that the country will achieve the target long before 2030.
The global deadline for reducing newborn and stillborn deaths, which stand at 22 per thousand live births in India, to a single digit is 2035.
"These are preventable deaths and now we have an action plan for preventing them," said Vardhan, flanked by billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft-founder Bill Gates and representatives of WHO and UNICEF and USAID.
INAP focuses on preconception and antenatal care, care during labour and child birth, immediate newborn care, care of healthy newborns, care of small and sick newborns and care beyond newborn survival.
India has also taken the decision to improve the quality of life for those with birth defects, neuro-developmental delay and disabilities. "Effective implementation of the strategic plan will be ensured through a systematic plan for monitoring and evaluation of dashboard indicators and milestones," he said.
13.3 lakh of children under the age of five years die in India and 7.56 lakh of them in their first 28 days, the period covering newborn deaths. While India has 17.5 per cent of the world population, its share in newborn mortality is a disturbing 27 per cent.
INAP envisages to bring down neonatal and stillborn mortality rates to 24 and 19, 21 and 17 and 15 and 13 respectively by 2017, 2020, 2025 before containing these numbers to single digits by 2030.
While Kerala already has neonatal mortality rate of seven, states of Bihar, UP, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are behind, accounting for 56 per cent of such deaths country Gates, whose Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is especially active in poor states like Bihar and UP to boost child health care, said all children should have a chance to "live and thrive" and termed as "great successes" eradication of polio and control of HIV in India.
His foundation, he said, is "very excited" by the commitment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vardhan to add new vaccines to the list of compulsory vaccines to children.
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