agencies
Chennai, Feb 5: The seaside tourist resort of Mamallapuram, about 55 km from here, is all set to host the three-day India's Call to Action Summit for Child Survival and Development from February seven. The summit, being organised by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in partnership with UNICEF and USAid, would be inaugurated by Union Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad.
More than 200 delegates, including 27 international and 35 national experts, would be taking part in the deliberations. The summit would discuss ten themes related to child survival and development, including new born health and child survival, quality new born care, interventions for preventing diarrhoea, social determinants of child survival, nutrition, strengthening of health systems, improving accountability, communication for child survival, partnership for improved maternal and child health and leadership dialogue. The summit is expected to arrive at a set of actions and commitments and determine a follow up mechanism for achieving India's goals for child survival and development. Duirng the summit, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare would launch a strategic Roadmap for Reproductive Maternal New Born Child and Adolescent health (RMNCH+A), primarily aimed at reducing deaths of children from preventable causes. An offiical release here today said in India the decline in Under Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) has increased to 7.5 per cent annually during the period 2005-10. "The average U5MR has been lower in urban areas. At the same time its rate of decline has been faster in rural areas", the release said. The release said the narrowing of the urban-rural gap as far as child mortality was concerned, was a reflection of improved equity in health care.
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