60 of every 1,000 children born in UP die before their fifth birthday

Do you know, 60 of every 1,000 children born in Uttar Pradesh die before their fifth birthday? This is true, according to latest NFHS 5 (National Family Health Survey) Report and world bank, Child mortality rates in several Indian states is similar to Afghanistan and war torn countries.

16 of 34 Indian states have child mortality rates comparable with countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Will the political powers claiming development get this achievement printed in their advertisements? No because it tells the reality of their development claims. In the name of development, governments do only those things which are visible to the public. Such as flyovers, expressways, temples, mosques and airports. It does not work on issues like hunger, poverty, malnutrition because they can be covered by advertisements for the flyovers and expressways she has built.

Why our children Malnourished?

Shweta Khandelwal, a public health nutritionist at the Public Health Foundation of India told Indiaspend that-

"Three types of factors impact nutrition; direct ones dealing with feeding and food; indirect ones such as mother's education, her mental health, income levels, WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene), pollution, agriculture; and an enabling environment, such as governance, leadership, state capacity (to provide respite in times of distress) and government policies."

This means that the situation could have been better if governments had focused on increasing the income of the people, educating them, reducing pollution, improving their mental health and making proper arrangements for sanitation.

But no, they will only do what is easily visible. They will build airports on which the poor man cannot go. Those who do not have a jugaad of bread for two times, can they ever dream of traveling by air? The study found out that only 1 per cent of the households in India take 45 per cent of flights.

And the Prime Minister of our country promotes the creation of the most international airports in UP in such a way that after their construction, 13 crore poor people of the country will get employment and food.

Same is the case with other states of the country as well. Where work is being done at a very slow pace regarding malnutrition. We have to ask our governments how much unemployment, inflation and hunger have reduced under their rule. Because these issues are the most important.

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