The recently released report by UNICEF highlights the dismal performance of India when it comes to prevent newborn mortality rate as India accounted for 640,000 deaths in 2016.
Reasons for such deaths--->
1.. inadequate health facilities to every nook and corner of the country accompanied by low health care budget when compared to other neighbours such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
2.. early marriages of girls and early pregnancy leads to low birth weight which results in untimely death
3.. lack of awareness regarding schemes such as JSY and preference to birth at home
4.. improper sanitation facilities in crunch locality and improper implementation of SBA leads to severe diseases such as dysentry which robs child's intestines to absorb nutrients.
5.. high charges of private hospitals and poverty among citizens act as a roadblock to avail private facilities.
Solutions -
1.. increase spending on health care budget as per global norms
2.. development of infrastructure such as new born wards,more child care units etc
3.. PPP in child care needs to be promoted and CSR could be diverted for such care
4.. curb on child marriages for proper development of a girl child
5.. Swedish model in health care sector needs to be implemented where both public and private sector compete with each other to provide better health care facilities and poor standards leads to cancellation of licences
6.. regulating private health care sector in terms of affordability
7.. creating awareness regarding importance of institutional deliveries through JSY and incentivise aanganwadi workers, nutrition supply,breast feeding habits etc
8.. creating database for all the pregnant woman for timely support and intervention
9.. promoting sterilisation among men and women so that women doesn't have to bear much load of pregnancy
10.. ready to use therapeutic foods (RUTF ) to counter malnutrition
CONCLUSION:GOI efforts such as NFSM, SBA,ICDS,JSY,SAJHA ABHIYAAN BY RAJASTHAN GOVERNMENT to curb child marriage,MAA initiative, national health policy 2017 etc are steps in right direction to prevent early child deaths.
