Mr. Simon Stephen
Infant Protection Day is observed on 7th November with an aim to spread awareness about the safety of infants and protect their lives by taking proper care of infants. The first few days of an infant are vital, and they need extra care. Many infants die due to lack of protection and proper care.
The infant Mortality Rate in India being very high, the government and numerous NGOs have initiated services that include: Specialized wards for care of the newborns in the District hospitals and PHCs; Home-based newborn care through healthcare workers; early identification and appropriate management of Diarrhoea disease and Acute Respiratory Infections; promoting breastfeeding, immunization against seven vaccine-preventable diseases, Vitamin A supplementation and Iron and Folic Acid supplementation; and Nutritional Rehabilitation Centers to address severe and acute malnutrition.
The infant mortality rate (IMR, deaths per 1,000 live births of children under one year of age) varies widely among the States in India. In 2019, Kerala fared the best with an IMR of 6 and a global ranking of 53 (52 of 185 countries had a better IMR). On the other hand, in 2019, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh had relatively poor IMRs — 41 and 46, respectively, similar to Sudan, Afghanistan, and Niger.
The single biggest factor, by far, in reducing the rate of death among children younger than five is greater education for women. Women with more education tend to have smaller families, in part because of increased employment opportunities and better knowledge about contraception; fewer children in a family improves the chances that an infant will survive. More education also helps women make better decisions about many health and disease factors such as prenatal care, basic hygiene, nutrition, and immunization—which are vital to reducing the leading causes of death in children under five, shown below.
May the Infant Protection Day, reinforce our commitment to the cause of education of the girl child and gender justice, a perquisite for the safety of the newborns.
(Mr. Simon Stephen is a social thinker, humanist and based in Canada.)