Center For International Development

Roughly one in every five births occurs in India.  Data reveal that despite improvements in the last decade, Indian children are still among the most unhealthy in the world.  In the state of Uttar Pradesh, which is home to 200 million people, 45 out of every 1000 babies die in the first month of life.  That is a higher rate of neonatal death than any country in the world except Pakistan.  Why does child health remain an enduring challenge for the Indian population?  Despite recent government programs to encourage hospital birth and build toilets, discrimination against women and people from the lower castes continues to harm child health. Today on CID's Speaker Series Podcast, Rohan Sandhu, CID student Ambassador, interviews Diane Coffey, a demographer who studies social influences on health in India. Diane co-directs r.i.c.e., a research institute for compassionate economics, which does research and policy advocacy for child health in India. www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/cid Interview recorded on October 4