Unicef on malnutrition

·         On August 21, 2008 GoI and Unicef launched a five-year (2008-2012) action plan to help India combat the challenges of excessive malnutrition, high infant and maternal mortality rates, lack of quality education, safe water and sanitation.

·         Over five years, Unicef, along with the ministry of women and child development (WCD), plans to reduce infant mortality rate from 58 per 1000 live births to 28 and maternal mortality rate from 301 to 100 per 100,000 live births.

·         The commitment is to help India achieve MDGs 4 and 5, on improved IMR and MMR, respectively.

·         With seven years to go for the realisation of millennium development goals (MDGs), India is way off in terms of eradicating extreme hunger and poverty with 34.3 per cent of its people still live on less than one dollar a day.

·         There is also the persistently high percentage of underweight children under three.

·         The numbers fell by only one per cent from 47 in 1998-99 to 45.9 in 2005-2006 - a significant distance to the MDG target of 25.8 per cent.