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World Health Day 2005: Make every mother and child count
The slogan for World Health Day 2005 is "Make every mother and
child count", which reflects the reality that today, the health of
women and children is not a high enough priority for many
governments and the international community.
World Health day 2005 theme, how it relates to India
Some facts on children:
• Some 640 million children lack adequate shelter; 400 million
have no access to safe drinking water; 270 million lack health
care amenities and 140 million — mostly girls — have never been to
school.
• It is reported that 63 per cent of them go to bed hungry and 53
per cent suffer from chronic malnutrition.
• The Child Mortality Evaluation Committee recently reported that
around 160,000 infants died every year in Maharashtra owing to
malnutrition particularly in the rural, tribal and urban slum
areas.
• UNICEF has reported that despite 2.4 million Indian children
perished due to pneumonia, diarrhoea, measles, tetanus and
whooping cough. Rajasthan, UP and MP account for more than 50 per
cent of infant deaths.
• UNICEF’s report ranks India 49th in child mortality. The infant
moratlity rate in India has come down to 68 from 129 in 1971
whereas the country’s under five mortality rate is placed at 93
per 1,000 live births. Kerala has the lowest IMR of 17 and Orissa
has the highest at 114.
• Every third new-born child in India is under-weight having the
risk of impaired health and brain development.
Source: The Statesman
Some facts on women:
• Nearly half of women are illiterate
• Median number of years in school for girls is 1.8 compared to
5.5 for boys
• 40% of women experience domestic violence
• Sex ratio (age 0-6) is 1000 males to 927 females
• One in 75 women dies in childbirth
• UNICEF report titled ‘The Progress of Indian States’ claims that
India had less than 93 women for every 100 men against the world
average of 105. That accounts to nearly 1.4 million "missing
girls" in the age group of 0-6 years based on the assumption that
one would typically expect 96 girls for every 100 boys in this age
group.
• National Family Health Survey of India, highlights the plight of
girls, who die at an alarmingly higher rate than boys, apparently
because of a stubborn preference among many couples for boys. The
risk of dying between ages one and five is 43 percent higher for
girls than boys.
Sources:
•
http://www.thp.org/reports/indiawom.htm
•
http://www.usaid.gov/in/UsaidInIndia/articles93.htm
•
http://www.cse.nd.edu/~surendar/safe/
A landmark
initiative: Indian Government clears bill on Commission for
children's right
New Delhi, Mar. 25, 2005 (ANI): The Central government has cleared
a bill to set up a national commission for children's rights,
which will be introduced in the current session of Parliament.
The bill is the first of its kind in India, which attempts to look
into the rights and welfare of children, the first of its kind,
although in 1959 the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of
the Child was made.
Way back in 1974, a National Policy on Children was formulated and
in 2003 the government introduced a bill on the violation of the
rights of the girl child. Nearly 38 per cent of the world's
population comprises of children and more than 50 per cent of them
do not get two square meals a day.
The Commission will have a hard task on their hands, as both
crimes against children and exploitation of child labor are on the
rise.
Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/050325/139/2kdts.html
Message from the
WHO Regional Director
Women and children are the most vulnerable assets on earth. It is
therefore vital to improve their health and well-being in order to
achieve complete development of overall human resources. It is for
this reason that the Millennium Development Goals call for a two
third reduction in child mortality and three fourth in maternal
mortality by 2015. World Health Day this year, with its slogan,
'Make Every Mother and Child Count', provides a timely opportunity
to redouble our efforts to promote health, survival and
development of women and children.
Read full text of message at:
http://www.whoindia.org/WorldHealthDay/2005/RD-Msg/RD-Message-WHD05.pdf
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