More than 2 million children under five die each year in India

New Delhi, 9 August 2008. - More than two million Indian children - under five years 22 percent of total world-die annually, according to UNICEF, child policy which states of India as "key" to achieve The fourth objective of the UN millennium.
Based on 1990, the UN aims to reduce by two thirds the global rate of infant mortality in children under five in 2015, but to achieve that goal, according to UNICEF, more effort will be needed in areas such as southern Asia.
"The Governments of South Asia do not spend much on health, just 1.1 percent. That spending should increase, because we can not act without public funding, "he told a press conference in New Delhi the director of UNICEF in the region, Daniel Toole.
The organization presented its annual report this week on the state of childhood in the Asia-Pacific, which qualifies as "insufficient" progress made ​​so far by the countries of southern Africa, where he died a third of the world's children.
The region has serious structural weaknesses, as there are countries at war, like Afghanistan, with areas of corruption, poverty and huge disparities in access to food and health, as in rural India.
"India is key to significant progress in the MDGs. If India fails, we will have failed all, "he told the same press conference the director of UNICEF Health for this country, Marzio Babille.
In South Asia there are 300 million undernourished people, of which much has the Indian nationality, a country where every year 8.3 million children are born underweight.
The main cause is malnutrition of their mothers, who suffer constant discrimination and women in most societies of South Asia.
The region is unique in the world where the girls born weighing less than boys. The female life expectancy is less than the male and one third of women suffer low birth weight.
"In India there are 50 million women who simply have disappeared as a result of feticide, abortions ... Nobody knows what happened to them. In many areas, mothers pay more attention to the male child and give it an advantage over girls, "Toole told Efe.
The son preference is that the child is the guardian of the lineage and heritage and is responsible for the care of parents when they age, while the daughter leaves home with an expensive dowry under the arm at the time of marriage.
Without access to education or family planning, women in the subcontinent are married at early age and it affects one in five mothers give birth between 15 and 19 years, with little energy to nurse children who arrive in a row.
"Sometimes, the habits of the mothers are rooted in incorrect traditions. Many believe that the child's death is normal. We have internalized "says Babille.
Force mothers and malnourished babies bred grass anemia, pneumonia and dysentery, causing havoc in India's rural areas, where access to primary health care is reduced to 22 percent of the population.
Thus, less than half of children between one and two years, UNICEF indicates vaccines are mandatory, especially in rural areas, with an infant mortality rate 50 percent higher than in the booming cities.
The gap between urban and rural society, India added the consequences of socioeconomic inequality and its caste structure, which has historically deferred to 167 million "untouchables".
Children "Dalits" (untouchables) are worse in school meals and their parents have access, when they have the worst jobs, and health services. Three out of four women "Dalits" give birth without assistance, interestingly three of every four children "Dalit" have anemia.
To output the complex maze child labor, UNICEF is planning further investment in health and a more defined for the population groups at risk, taking into account income, gender, caste, ethnicity or geography.
"In India there is a political will (to change things). The problem is how to reach the poorest, who live outside of the main routes of communication, "said Babille.

Shock in India by the discovery of fifteen children raped and murdered

New Delhi, December 30, 2006. - India woke up in shock today after new discoveries of skeletal remains in the house of Noida, a town near New Delhi, where yesterday the bodies of 15 children who were raped and murdered, without stopping two people have served to appease public anger.
Dozens of parents moved into the house, situated in a popular area full of humble workers, brandishing photographs of their missing children and observing the work of the police, who discovered today a new bag of bones in a drain, said the chain NTDV television.
Near the house there are still swirling hundreds of people, some of which have thrown stones at the house and tried to get into it, while police continue with the exhumation of bodies and does not rule out increasing the number of killed.
Security forces yesterday arrested an employee of the home of 30 years, Satinder, who has confessed to the murder and rape of twelve children.
In addition, the employer was also arrested Mohinder Singh, who assumed today that the crimes were committed by the employee with "knowledge and consent," police said.
Both have gone to court, charged with murder, conspiracy and concealment of evidence, which in India can carry the death penalty.
The arrests have failed to appease the wrath of the residents of Noida, who had recorded 38 disappearances of children in the past two years, although half of the cases went unreported because many victims were immigrants residing illegally in the municipality and Police feared.
However, some relatives of the children had gone without success to make complaints against Satinder, father of a girl three years and described by police as "mentally ill", which yesterday admitted raping and murdering six children under 12 years "after lure them with chocolates. "
"The security forces ignored us," said the paternal uncle of a missing child in February the newspaper "Hindustan Times", while another villager said he had told the police that "children always disappear within 100 meters ".
In the district that recorded crimes, Nithari, is the frequent presence of children in the streets, because most of the population are immigrants and is engaged in menial jobs, which has led many people in the population suggest that the Police case was not concerned by the low status of those affected.
The police was quick to deny the allegations of inaction, saying that in recent months had several research teams in cities like Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, on the trail of missing children. reported television-CNN IBN.
Together the two men, police have also questioned the neighbor next door, a few months involved in a case of organ trafficking, as it is thought that the event is related to the extent that agents also began excavations home.
The remains of children were found in bags buried in a drainage area of the courtyard of the house of businessman arrested during the investigation into the disappearance of a girl named Payal.
The police arrested Satinder used because of the small mobile phone after her murder, allowing the agents to find him tracing the calls.
However, the villagers already suspected for a while.
"We thought we could be involved Satinder because children always disappeared when he came to town," said Jhabulal the newspaper "Hindustan Times", before ensuring that the dead children "amounts to at least 50", but police found only 15 skulls.
While India remains steeped in wonder, major newspapers carried a front-page crime, where they have given to the alleged murderer of the abominable title of "Butcher of Noida."