State of the world’s children and progress towards the Alma Ata Declaration

[...]children with disabilities generally experience maltreatment more than children without disabilities. 4 Those with communication problems, in particular, have a greater preponderance of first incidents from birth to 5 years than any other group of disabled children as their parents are more likely to resort to physical discipline often out of frustration and stress. 4 Undoubtedly, more work is required on the epidemiology and to provide cost-effective interventions for disabilities in the first crucial years of life in the light of growing evidence associating countries such as Nigeria and India that account for the highest rates of neonatal, infant and child mortality with the highest proportion of developmentally disadvantaged children worldwide. 5 It is therefore hoped that the renewed emphasis on under 5 mortality rate as "an indispensable measure of child health" or a "barometer of child well-being" will in due course give way to a measure that better reflects the vital but poorly understood links between child survival, disability and well-being in the developing world.