In a shocking ranking, India has slipped down by three ranks to 140 from last year in Mother’s Index rank. A total of 179 countries were ranked. India is one of the 10 countries in the world with the greatest survival divide between wealthy and poor urban children. India is among Rwanda, Cambodia, Nigeria, Vietnam, Bangladesh..etc. The US ranked 33rd and the UK 23rd.
The Index is based on five different criteria. They are
- Maternal health
- Children’s well being
- Educational status
- Economic status
- Political status.
Union Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla said India has made slight improvement on Infant Mortality Rate front, even today over 7,60,000 children die in India every year and many of these deaths are due to preventable causes.
In India, the percentage of the urban population living in slums is 29 per cent. According to the report this urban poor population is 3.2 times as likely to die by the age of 5 as the urban rich, an indicator of the rich-poor gap. The growing number of slums the world over has been noted as a cause of concern in the report and a main cause for the urban rich-poor gap.
According to Save the Children, Indian children on average spend 11.7 years in formal schooling and 52.7 out of 1,000 children in India die before their fifth birthday.
Norway topped the ranking and Somalia is ranked last.
GK Questions
- The Maternal Mortality rate is calculated per how many live births? 1,00,000 Live Births.
- The Infant Mortality rate is calculated per how many live births? 1000 Live Births.
- The Noenatal Mortality rate is calculated by noting number of neonates dying before reaching _____ number of days of age? 28 days
