Potential for reducing child and maternal mortality through reproductive and child health intervention programmes: An illustrative case study from India

In September 2000, at the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York, leaders of the world’s Governments signed the Millennium Declaration and committed themselves to a series of goals and targets that came to be known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Goals include reducing under-five mortality by two thirds (Goal 4) and reducing maternal mortality ratio by three quarters (Goal 5) between 1990 and 2015 (IMF, OECD, United Nations and World Bank Group, 2000). According to the assessment made in 2003 by ESCAP, UNDP and ADB, among 47 countries in the ESCAP region for which data are available, one half (24 countries) have already achieved Goal 4 and four additional countries are expected to achieve the Goal, leaving 19 countries (40 per cent) making slow progress or regressing. As for Goal 5 (improve maternal health), of the 42 countries for which data are available, seven have already achieved the Goal and another seven are expected to achieve it, leaving 28 countries (two thirds) either making slow progress or regressing. Goal 5 (reduction by three quarters) is more ambitious than Goal 4 (reduction by two thirds) and it is not surprising that fewer countries are progressing well towards the first than towards the latter. India is classified as progressing slowly towards Goal 4 and regressing in achieving Goal 5 as of 2003 (ESCAP, UNDP and ADB, 2005).