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.