PHA-Exch> Much of Asia fails in healthcare, children suffer: UNICEF

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Vern Weitzel vern.weitzel at gmail.com

http://in.reuters.com/article/health/idINDEL6278520080805

Much of Asia fails in healthcare, children suffer: U.N.
Tue Aug 5, 2008 3:22pm IST
By Bappa Majumdar

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is failing to provide basic healthcare to its
poorest children despite robust economic growth, underlining a widening gap
between rich and poor across the Asia-Pacific region, the United Nations
said on Tuesday.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said cutting child mortality
depended on India and China, which together accounted for almost a third of
all child deaths worldwide in 2006.

India is among 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific which are struggling to
reduce child mortality rates by two thirds, one of the so-called
health-related Millennium Goals the United Nations set to achieve by 2015,
UNICEF said in a new report.

"India needs more political will and needs to strengthen its healthcare
delivery to the poorest of the poor who are not being reached," Daniel
Toole, UNICEF's regional director of South Asia, said in New Delhi.

In 2006, 2.1 million children under five years old died in India -- the
biggest number after China. India is the second most populous nation in the
world and UNICEF said global efforts to improve child survival would fail
unless it does better.

"India is a key to the process of improvement and if India fails, the world
fails," Toole said after releasing "The State of Asia Pacific's Children
2008" report.

India's infant mortality rate stood at 57 per 1,000 live births last year.
The country's health officials have announced they would bring that rate
down to around 30 per 1,000 live births within the next four years. South
Asia was also falling behind rest of the world with only 1.1 percent of
gross domestic product allocated to health care, UNICEF said.

Experts say many of the two-thirds of Indians living in rural areas do not
have access to basic medical facilities, despite the country achieving 9
percent economic growth.

Around 65 percent of Indian women still give birth at home. UNICEF says
there is an urgent need for drugs, doctors, nutrition and education for poor
women and children.

"There is a tremendous level of growth, but the actual disparity between the
rich and the poor is increasing," Toole said.

One out of every three women in India is also underweight, putting them at
risk of delivering low birth-weight babies. These babies are 20 times more
likely to die in infancy, according to UNICEF.

Healthcare facilities in India and the Asia-Pacific region was also hampered
by corruption, Toole said.
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