New Delhi, April 28 (IANS) India’s child mortality rate is on the rise, says a study conducted by Save the Children organisation, which adds that the country’s dismal performance is now at par with Nepal and worse than Bangladesh. Minister of Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury, while replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha Monday, cited figures from the study ‘State of World’s Mothers-2007: Saving the Lives of Children Under five’. According to it, the mortality rate of children in India under the age of five is 74 per 1,000 live births.

This is at par with Nepal’s ratio and worse than Bangladesh, where the mortality ratio under five years of age is 73 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Chowdhury said an alarming number of countries are failing to save children’s lives and in many places the situation is only getting worse.

“Since child and maternal death rates are highest in the poor and most disadvantaged places, millions of children’s lives maybe saved by way of cost basic interventions. Countries that save children’s lives improve their prospects for economic growth and social development,” Chowdhury said.

The study, which compares child mortality in a country to its national income per person, has a list of recommendations one of the foremost being investment in basic, low cost solutions to save children’s lives and ensuring the well being of mothers.

Expansion of the availability of health care services to the poorest of the poor, improving strategies to increase the use of lifesaving services and increasing government support to save the lives of mothers, children and newborns were other suggestions listed.

Adding to the gloomy picture, the Unicef report titled ‘The State of the World’s Children-2008′ said two million children under the age of five had died in India during the year 2006.