GENERAL STUDIES PAPER 2
India registers significant decline in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)
Major drop in birth cohort and infant deaths
Gender gap reducing: Big boost to ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’
Context:
- India has registered a significant decline in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR).
- IMR of India has declined by three points (8% decline), from 37 per 1000 live births in 2015 to 34 per 1000 live births in 2016, compared to two points decline last year.
- India also recorded a major drop in birth cohort, which has for the first time come down to below 25 million.
Keypoints:
- India has registered 90000 fewer infant deaths in 2016 as compared to 2015.
- The total number of estimated infant deaths have come down from 930000 (9.3 Lakhs) in 2015 to 840000 (8.4 lakhs) in 2016.
- The gender gap in India for child survival is reducing steadily.
- The gender difference between female and male IMR has now reduced to <10%, giving a major boost to the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme of the Government.
- The results signify that the strategic approach of the Ministry has started yielding dividends and the efforts of focusing on low performing States is paying off.
- Among the EAG States and Assam, all States except Uttarakhand have reported decline in IMR in comparison to 2015.
- The decline is reported as 4 points in Bihar, 3 points in Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand and two points decline in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Rajasthan.
- These remarkable achievements in merely one year is also the result of a countrywide efforts to increase the health service coverage through various initiatives of the Government that includes strengthening of service delivery; quality assurance; RMNCH+A; human resources, community processes; information and knowledge; drugs and diagnostics, and supply chain management, etc.
GENERAL STUDIES PAPER 3
‘India Playing a Leadership Role in Wildlife Management by Involving Local Communities’
India Hosts Global Wildlife Programme to Address Illegal Wildlife Trade
Context:
- To address illegal wildlife trade across 19 countries of Asia and Africa, India is hosting the Global Wildlife Programme (GWP) jointly with World Bank and United Nations Development Programme.
- The ‘Wildlife Week’, the theme of the Conference is – “Peoples’ participation in wildlife conservation”.
Keypoints:
- India is playing a leadership role in management of wildlife through involvement of local communities.
- A 15-year National Wildlife Action Plan (2017-31), with a special focus on peoples’ participation will also be launched on October 2.
- Conference will act as a platform for knowledge exchange and coordination on the action taken on the ground to combat illegal poaching of wildlife and improve governance on wildlife conservation.
- The impact of issues such as global warming, climate change and disaster management on the people living around wildlife areas and on the wildlife were also discussed.
- The meeting will bring about strengthened cooperation between India and the 18 GWP countries in better management of wildlife habitats and minimizing human-wildlife conflict situations. It will also enable India to strengthen its enforcement mechanism to control illicit trade.
- Discussions on management of wildlife habitat, securing sustainable community livelihood, enhancing enforcement, monitoring, cooperation to reduce wildlife crimes such as poaching and related threats are taken up in the conference.
- The Conference will provide an opportunity for India to showcase its conservation efforts through joint forest management, vana sanrakshan samitis, eco-development committees in and around Protected Areas.
- The participating nations include – Afghanistan, Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Philippines, Republic of Congo, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In addition, representatives of World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) will also be present.
- Earlier, four similar Programmes had been convened at Gland (Switzerland), Hanoi (Vietnam), Nairobi (Kenya) and Liberville (Gabon). Led by the World Bank, the Global Wildlife Programme was initiated in 2015.
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