Is India doing enough to reduce child mortality?
Sharda, a 17-year-old mother, gave birth to her first child in February in a village in Noida, just a few hours’ drive outside Delhi. Though her son was born premature and weak, he received no treatment. In many parts of India, particularly in poor and marginalized communities, a woman is considered impure for a fortnight after giving birth. After labor, Sharda was relegated to a makeshift room outside her family’s house made out of plastic sheets and tarpaulin. Heavy smoke from a wood fire warming the room filled the air, stinging Sharda’s eyes as she lay in a corner. The baby was an invisible bundle beside her. Tiny and underweight, he died two months later. Despite its drastic economic advances in the last two decades, India still accounts for 20% of the world’s child mortality. Of the 26 million children born in India each year, nearly 2 million still die before age 5. Half of those deaths occur within a month of birth from preventable causes like malnutrition, diarrhea and pneumon
