India does better for its children, improves their chance of survival

Overall life expectancy has declined compared to 10 years ago though

Children in India are less likely to die young now than a few years ago, despite the health upheavals in the years before Covid-19 hit the country in January 2020.

Key indicators of child mortality improved at a faster rate than before despite the pandemic, though a fair distance is yet to be covered.

In the 10 years since 2012, the rate declined by 44.1 per cent in India, shows an analysis of new multi-nation data from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The improvement is actually marginally better than the pre-pandemic decade ending 2019. India did better than Brazil (18.6 per cent decline in child mortality) and South Africa (17.1 per cent decline) but it is behind China and Russia as seen in chart 1 (click image for interactive link).

 

The first 28 days of a child’s life are the most vulnerable. Deaths in this period, or neonatal mortality, have dropped 38 per cent in India over the decade since 2012. That is an improvement compared to the 35.1 per cent decline in the decade ending 2009 (chart 2).

 

The improvement in child mortality comes even as overall life expectancy has declined compared to ten years ago.

India and the United States (US) are the only large economies where life expectancy in 2022 declined from a decade ago, shows an analysis of data from the UN Development Programme which recently released its Human Development Report. China, Germany and Japan increased the life expectancy of their people, while India’s peers in emerging markets also saw decline in the decade ending 2022 (chart 3).

 

In India, life expectancy differs across castes and tribes for men and women, according to a study called ‘Large and Persistent Life Expectancy Disparities between India's Social Groups’. It also depends on wealth, says another study called ‘Socioeconomic inequality in life expectancy in India’.

India’s improvement in child mortality still leaves much to be done.

China and the US have fewer than seven deaths per 1,000 live births before age five. In India, there are 29 such deaths. China and the US have a neonatal mortality of three per 1,000 live births. It is 18 in India.