Author’s note: This is the second post documenting my visit on behalf of Mom Bloggers for Social Good to see Save the Children’s work at the Indira Kalyan slum in Delhi, India. To read the first post click here. 

India has made a tremendous amount of progress over the last two decades fighting to save the lives of mothers and children. A decade ago close to 75,000 women died during childbirth every year and this number has been reduced to 56,000 in 2010. Significant progress has also been made in newborn survival. Since 1990, India has reduced the rate of deaths of children under 5 by 46% or almost in half. Despite the major achievements, newborn and maternal dealths are still way too high given the tragic fact that many of these deaths are largely preventable. The situation is especially dire in India, the second most populous country in the world, with a hugely disproportionate percentage of maternal and newborn deaths.

Inside The Indira Kalyan Camp, an unauthorized slum in Delhi

Women inside the indira Kalyan Camp

Per Save the Children’s 2013 State of World’s Mother’s Report:

• Nearly 1 in 5 deaths of children under age five are in India. (1.6 million children or 29% of the global total ).
• 19% of these deaths take place on the day a child is born and 53% occur within the first month of birth.
• Large scale inequities within India continue to persist today in terms of wealth disparities, rural-urban divide, education, age of mother, caste, which means that not all babies born in India have an equal change of survival.

Children within the Indira Kalyan Camp pose for a picture