India sets health goals for next 15 years | Fusion - WeRIndia

A new health target has been set by India. This time it is a challenging task. India has aimed to reduce mortality rate to 70 per 1000 live births, and for neonatal and under-five to 12 and 25 per 1,000 births respectively. These aims are set under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aims are to be achieved in the next 15 years.

Recently, a meeting of the health ministry and other departments has bought consensus in the government regarding these new targets. The new India targets will be presented in the upcoming United Nations General Assembly session next month. They will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Currently, the infant mortality rate  in India is 40 per 1000 live births. The old target set by MDF was to reach 27 by the end of 2015. The under-5 mortality is 49 with the actual MDG target set to 42. The maternal mortality rate is 167 per 1,00,000 births. The MDG goal was 109 by the end of 2015.

Even though India has made a significant progress in reducing infant and maternal mortality rate in the last two decades, the country is still behind Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. India also has lower child immunization rate and total life expectancy than these countries.

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