India: Nearly 5,000 Children Under Age of 5 Die Every Day

New Delhi, Sep 5 (Prensa Latina) More than 4,700 children under the age of 5 die in India everyday, a report by the non-governmental organization World Vision India said today.

The report, titled "The Killer Gap: A global index of health inequality for children", shows that within this age group India ranked 135th in child mortality.

The report also pointed out that there are fewer than seven doctors for every 10,000 people, a deficit that is most noticeable among poor families.

Indians are forced to spend 61.7 percent of their income on access health services, a fact that creates a wide gap between the health services received by the rich and the poor, said the NGO, which is focused on improving the standard of living for Indian citizens, but especially that of children.

A recent report from the Planning Commission reported that 21.9 percent of the Indian population lives in extreme poverty.

Local experts and other countries, however, say the figure is much higher because that organization sets the poverty line at 33.3 rupees (0.52 US dollars) a day in cities and 27.2 (0.41 USD) in rural areas.

"The global index between countries has been determined using four indicators: life expectancy, out-of-pocket expenses for health services, adolescent fertility rates and health services coverage," said Jayakumar Christian, chief executive officer of World Vision India.

According to the World Vision report, the countries with the largest gaps are Chad, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Mali, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan, while the five with the smallest gaps are, France, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg and Finland.