Child mortality: India's record worse than Bangladesh

Marcela Hernandez/ February 22,2008/ 10:44PM/ Poverty and Inequality

My topic is poverty and inequality and I found an article that takes place in New Delhi, India. This article talks about poverty being one of the main causes of child mortality because about two million children under the age of five are dying each year. “A new study conducted by Save the Children, which compares child mortality in a country to its national income per person, shows that India lags behind poorer neighbors like Bangladesh and Nepal when it comes to cutting child deaths.” According to a report Bangladesh and Nepal have emerged as the top 10 performers, recording fewer child deaths than their national income would suggest while India is ranked number 16. They have said that no matter how poor a country is, they can always cut child morality if they pursue the right policies. "There is huge inequality within India - of the 2 million children that die needlessly in the country every year, 60% are living in just five of the country's 28 states. There is a real need to examine how children are looked at in a country that allocates less than 5% of its GDP to children, despite the fact they make up almost 40% of the population," said Shireen Miller, director of policy for Save the Children India. They also say that even though poverty and child mortality is very strong many different countries can use different types of resources to help improve survival prospects of children.