Editorial
Reduction in child mortality rate
A commendable achievement
ADDING to the list of progress in Bangladesh, it has brought down child mortality rate by 72 % in the last two decades. According to a report jointly released by Unicef, WHO, the World Bank, and the United Nations Population Division last week, the rate of child mortality is 347 per day while it was 1,454 in 1990. Bangladesh has reached one of her millennium goals by reducing the number of under-five deaths.
This is indeed a remarkable feat given that our largest neighbour has the highest number of under-five deaths in the world, with 1.4 million under-five deaths in 2012. Only Maldives has done better than us in this regard in the region. While Bangladesh is lagging behind in certain areas, we have done something right to tackle this important health issue.
We congratulate all the successive governments since 1990, and the medical and public health workers for this achievement. However, it is not just our government but also initiatives by our development partners which have facilitated this progress. We also commend the government for recognizing the right sources of medical interventions, collaboration with foreign bodies and changing the overall behavior of individuals – making them more aware of child health and safety.
But we must not stop here. 347 children are still dying every day and we need to continue fighting child mortality with the same vigour. We look forward to a nation of healthy children and mothers, following best practices to end such everyday tragedy.
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