Tamil Nadu has done better in preventing under-five deaths in last few years
Tamil Nadu has been making steady progress in reducing deaths among children under the age of five in the last few years. Focussed measures on improving growth monitoring, nutritional assessment and support, and immunisation services are paying off.
Data from the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine showed that the under-five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) has been falling steadily in the last few years - from 10.9 during 2022-2023, it dropped to 8.2 during 2024-2025.
T.S. Selvavinayagam, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, said to prevent deaths among children under the age of five, the State was mainly focussed on growth monitoring, nutritional assessment along with supplementation and immunisation services.
'It needs a complete and comprehensive service provision including management of illness, growth monitoring, nutritional support and immunisation services. Tamil Nadu's success is mainly attributed to the activities which cover all these areas including the role played by the Social Welfare department,' he said. While deaths directly caused by diarrhoea and malnutrition were not occurring now but were more contributory in nature, infections and unintentional injury were among the major causes of deaths in the under-five age group, he added.
Rema Chandramohan, former director, Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children, said that earlier, there were deaths due to pneumonia and diarrhoea. Deaths due to diarrhoea came down due to use of zinc, oral rehydration salts, and rotavirus vaccination. Availability of good antibiotics for treating infections, vaccines such as for preventing measles along with sanitation and safe drinking water had helped to a great extent.
Improving newborn care prevent under-five deaths. 'There are better follow-up services now to ensure better newborn outcomes. Improving breastfeeding rates can also improve outcomes. We advocate breastfeeding up to two years of age as it protects babies from malnutrition, diarrhoea and pneumonia,' she said. The health-seeking behaviour including for mild illness had improved now, she noted.
Dr. Rema added that growth monitoring, up-to-date vaccination, breastfeeding and proper complementary feeding are crucial. 'We could concentrate a little more on monitoring the growth of children every three months, pick up children falling behind and take up immediate remedial measures. Anaemia is also common among children. Once malnutrition is prevented, they will not be susceptible to infections,' she said.
Dr. Selvavinayagam said that among the key concerns is ensuring exclusive breastfeeding for six months and introduction of locally available appropriate feeding afterwards. 'For this, the young mother needs support from everyone including family, society and the doctors,' he said.
'We have a special scheme - Uttachathai Uruthi Sei (Ensure nutrition)- for identifying malnourished children in anganwadi centres through our health teams along with ICDS and providing them supplementary nutrition. This is one area where we need to focus continuously,' he added.
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