Fiinovation - Meeting the country's Millennium Development Goal targets on health indicators - The clock is ticking.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that were officially established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. All 189 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve these goals by the year 2015. The goals are:

1.      Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger

2.      Achieving universal primary education

3.      Promoting gender equality and empowering women

4.      Reducing child mortality rates

5.      Improving maternal health

6.      Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

7.      Ensuring environmental sustainability

8.      Developing a global partnership for development

According to WHO, India will fail to achieve some of the most important Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets like reduction in maternal and child deaths, and increase in child immunization rates by 2015. There is a major possibility that India will miss its targets, some by a big margin. WHO admits that India has been effectively reducing its infant and maternal mortality figures, largely due to National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). But still the pace hasn't been satisfactory enough, especially when it comes to infant and maternal deaths.

One of the MDG goals is to reduce under-five mortality rate to 42 per 1,000 live births by 2015. India will reach 52 by that year missing the target by 10 percentage points. The national level estimate of infant mortality rate is likely to be 44 against the MDG target of 27 in 2015. Some of the largest states like Madhya Pradesh (62), Odisha (61), Uttar Pradesh (61), Assam (58), Meghalaya (55), Rajasthan (55), Chhattisgarh (51), Bihar (48) and Haryana (48) still have IMR above the national estimates.

India is, however, expected to cover about 89% children in the age group 12-23 months for immunization against measles by 2015 — short of universal immunization of one-year olds against measles by about 11 percentage points. India will reach maternal mortality rate (MMR) of 139 per 100,000 live births by 2015, falling short by 30 percentage points.

Goal 4: Reducing child mortality rates

Over the last few decades, good Nutrition, healthcare and better standards to living have almost halved the number of child deaths. In 1990, more than 12 million children died before the age of 5, in developing countries, because of diseases such as diarrhea, malnutrition, pneumonia, AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. By 2012, this number dropped to 6.6 million. Still Under-5 mortality rates are very high because of considering that most of these deaths are due to preventable or treatable causes.

We can still reduce child mortality by taking initiatives and strengthening the national health systems. We need to expand our immunization programs which will further enhance growth monitoring of children. By ensuring the survival and improved health indicators of mothers by supporting better nutrition for the child and mother will be the first step in this direction. The country needs to better the available infrastructure so that enhanced reproductive health status can be achieved.

Goal 5: Improving maternal health

Out of all the MDGs, maternal health has been the least progressive goal. Nearly 800 women all  over the world die every day due to complications during pregnancy or child birth. Among those, 99 percent of the deaths occur in developing countries. Every country's priority should be to better the women's health status.

We can promote women health by improving maternal nutrition and by advocating for spacing and empowering them to choose family size. We need to educate young boys and girls on the importance of contraception so as to reduce teenage pregnancies. This will also help in combating the evil effects of early marriage. There is an emergence need of ensuring trained attendants to conduct deliveries and to better the access to emergency and comprehensive obstetric, ante-natal and post-partum care

Goal 6: Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

99% of people who die from AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis (TB) are living in the developing countries. Though new cases of HIV infections are declining and the number of people receiving antiretroviral treatment is growing, still 34 million people are living with HIV/AIDS.

For effective prevention, care, and sustainable treatment of various diseases various effective steps need to be taken. For HIV infections, measures like promotion of safe sexual behavior, male circumcision, and providing treatment for HIV prevention are the first step. To combat malaria, promotion of use of long-lasting, insecticide-treated nets and increasing access to efficacious anti-malaria medicines are the best bet. Improving housing conditions of TB patients, TB screening of HIV-positive persons, and Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) therapy for TB needs to done.