UN Reports Highlighted India’s Achievements in Child and Maternal Health | Current Affairs | Vision IAS
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UN Reports Highlighted India’s Achievements in Child and Maternal Health

Posted 30 Jun 2025

2 min read

Recently, ‘Trends in maternal mortality 2000 to 2023’ and ‘Levels & Trends in Child Mortality 2024’ reports released by UN Inter-agency groups, highlighted the global trends in maternal and child mortality rates.

Key Achievements of India

  • Decline in Zero-Dose Children: Zero-dose children are those who did not receive their first dose of DTP (diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis) vaccine.
    • Reduced from 0.11% (2023) to 0.06% (2024) of the total population.
  • Reduction in Maternal & Child Mortality:
    • Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR)86% decline (vs. global 48% reduction since 1990).
      • MMR: Number of maternal deaths during a given time period per 100 000 live births during the same time period.
    • Under-Five Mortality Rate (U5MR)78% decline (vs. global 61%).
      • U5MR:  Number of deaths of children under 5 years of age per 1,000 live births.
    • Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR)70% decline (vs. global 54%).
      • NMR: Number of neonatal deaths that from birth to 29 days per 1,000 live births.
    • Polio-Free Status: Maintained since 2014 through National Immunization Days (NIDs).

Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) Achievements

  • Reach: Provides free vaccination services annually to 2.9 crore pregnant women and 2.6 crore infants (0–1 year).
  • Vaccines: Now includes 12 vaccine-preventable diseases (up from 6 in 2013).
  • New Vaccines Introduced (2014 onwards): Inactivated Polio Vaccine, Rotavirus Vaccine, Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine, Measles-Rubella Vaccine, Adult Japanese Encephalitis Vaccine, Tetanus-Diphtheria Vaccine.
  • Tags :
  • UIP
  • Zero-dose children
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