Kill me not! I am still an infant

KOTTAYAM: The increasing rate of infant's death has become a cause for concern of Kerala which rose from 12 to 16 deaths per 1,000 infants in last two years.

According to the data provided by Health Minister V S Sivakumar, Kerala has recorded 9,005 infant's death from April 2011 to December 2013, in which districts of central Kerala including Kottayam, Ernakulam, Idukki, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta have recorded 2,184 deaths collectively.

Dr P Savida, Child Specialist at Institute of Child Health, Kottayam cited the reasons for increase in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) are adolescent motherhood, gap between child birth and maternal nutrition status.

She explains: “A child born within one year of the previous child, have high risk of dying, it became double if the previous child has died. Another reason for the deaths is obesity of mother, if she has less than 18 kg of Body Mass Index, the chances of her child to die are more.”

Although Kerala has ranked 1^st among other states of having lowest IMR in the country (2011 census), the rapid growth of child deaths has reached an alarming position, admit officials of the Health Ministry. As per a survey by the Planning Commission of India, Kerala is now on the 3^rd slot after Goa and Manipur, which have an IMR of 10 deaths per 1,000 children each.

“We are conducting regular programmes in every district hospitals to educate mothers about the maternal care, as many of them doesn't know what to do and what not to do at the time of pregnancy,” said Dr Savida.

India is improving considerably in maintaining a low IMR from 47 in 2010 to 42 in 2013 but the target of achieving IMR-4 till 2015 (set by the government) seems quite impossible at this stage as major parts of the country is lagging the basic facilities in social, economical and educational fields.