NEW DELHI: India ranks 12th among 52 low-middle income countries having highest infant mortality rates with over six lakh children dying within the first month of their birth in 2016, a report by UNICEF says.
With the neonatal mortality rate being recorded at 25.4 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2016, India ranked below Sri Lanka (127), Bangladesh (54), Nepal (50) and Bhutan (60) but was above Pakistan, which was ranked among the lowest in the list with 45.6 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the report released yesterday.
Babies born in Japan, Iceland and Singapore have the best chance of survival, while newborns in Pakistan, the Central African Republic and Afghanistan face the worst odds, the report stated.
While we have more than halved the number of deaths among children under the age of five in the last quarter century, we have not made similar progress in ending deaths among children less than one month old, said Henrietta H Fore, UNICEF’s Executive Director. (AGENCIES)
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