India to slash infant, maternal death rates

Indian health minister pledged to reduce the high infant mortality rate to halve the number of baby deaths by 2010.Addressing a gathering of Christian missionary doctors, the Health Minister, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss said that the government is under criticism that many poor people are not benefiting from record economic growth. The government therefore will increase health spending and deploy thousands more health workers to villages.Some 2.1 million children under 5 die each year in India, of which over 60 percent are under 1 year old, according to the United Nations' Children Fund (UNICEF). India has been talked about as the nation of the future - a country that which will become a superpower, with 9.2 percent GDP growth. But we also have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the region, and one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.India's infant mortality rate stands at 57 per 1,000 live births - more than impoverished Eritrea and Bangladesh. Ramadoss pledged to bring the rate down to around 30 per 1,000 live births within the next four years. More than two-thirds of Indians live in rural areas, many without access to basic medical facilities, despite three years of over 8 percent economic growth. The minister also said that India would aim to cut the country's maternal mortality rate of 300 per 100,000 live births - three times that of Botswana - to less than 100. Around 65 percent of Indian women still deliver at home. On Wednesday, the government increased health spending for the fiscal year April-March 2007/08 by 21 percent to 99.47 billion rupees ($2.25 billion), but government funding for health is still just 2.4 percent of GDP. The health ministry said it would double the number of female Associated Social Health Activists (ASHAs) in rural areas to 620,000 within a year. ASHAs would work with thousands of child nutrition workers to cut infant and maternal mortality."If you save the mother, you can save the child," Dr. Ramadoss said. "They are going to know all the children and mothers in each village," he added.