RAKESH

n India, over 2.1 million children die annually before reaching their fifth birthday, 50% of them not
surviving even 28 days. Globally, the number stands at 9.7 million annually.

The statistics are equally shocking among neonates - children newborn to a maximum age of 28 days old. While around 4 million children die within the first 28 days of life across the planet every year, India records around one million of these cases.

Of the 19 million infants in the developing world who have low birth weight (less than 2,500 grams), 8.3 million are in India. This means that approximately 43% of all the world’s infants who are born with a low birth weight are born in India.