In ten years, the living conditions of the poor have been improving—but not necessarily because of the UN’s goals EVEN at 70, Jiyem, an Indonesian grandmother, gets up in the small hours to cook and collect firewood for her impoverished household. Her three-year-old grandson is malnourished. Nobody in her family has ever finished primary school. Her ramshackle house lacks electricity; the toilet is a hole in the ground; the family...
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Is India Doing Enough for Its Children? by Nilanjana Bhowmick
Sharda, a 17-year-old mother, gave birth to her first child in February in a village in Noida, just a few hours' drive outside New Delhi. Though her son was born premature and weak, he received no treatment. In many parts of India, particularly in poor and marginalized communities, a woman is considered impure for a fortnight after giving birth. After labor, Sharda was relegated to a makeshift room outside her...
More »Under-five mortality rate dropping, reports UNICEF
India accounts for 21 % of such deaths Even as the number of deaths among children under the age of five globally has fallen from 12.4 million in 1990 to 8.1 million in 2009, India accounts for 21 per cent of such deaths. According to the latest report titled ‘Levels and Trends in Child Mortality,' launched by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the global under-five mortality rate has dropped by a...
More »Child mortality rates drop by a third since 1990 – UNICEF
Fewer children are dying before they reach their fifth birthdays, with the total number of under-five deaths falling by one third in the past two decades, according to fresh estimates by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Between 1990 and 2009, the number of children below the age of five who died annually fell from 12.4 million to 8.1 million. The global under-five mortality rate dipped from 89 deaths per...
More »Number of world’s hungry dips below 1 billion, UN reports
Although the number of hungry people in the world has fallen below 1 billion thanks to renewed economic growth, it remains “unacceptably” high, two United Nations agencies stressed today. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced in a new report that 925 million people will suffer chronic hunger, down nearly 100 million from 1.02 billion in 2009. “But with a child dying every six seconds because of undernourishment-related problems, hunger remains...
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