India sees 1 Maternal Death Every 10 Minutes

On infant health, though, India has done much better and is well within reaching the MDG of reducing IMR to 42 per 1000 live births. As per the latest estimates, India`s IMR stands at 47. It is a little higher for rural areas.

India's progress on the MDG of combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB is also satisfactory, said UN officials. They said it was heartening that India had managed to do well on the health MDGs despite the fact that food insecurity in the country was growing.

Meijer, however, warned "At the current pace, India is unlikely to meet the MDG on maternal health. It needs to focus on such huge pockets where the mother mortality rate is still high. The states where MMR is still high are Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, besides others".

To achieve this MDG 5 (on maternal health) India needed to reduce maternal mortality (MMR) from 437 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1991 to 109 by 2015. It has only reached the 212 mark just yet.

The UN MDG Report 2012 points out that overall, three important targets on poverty, slums and water have been met three years ahead of the 2015 deadline. The share of people living on less than $1.25 a day has reduced to less than half as compared to 1990.

The proportion of people with improved access to drinking water has risen from 76 percent in 1990 to 89 percent in 2010. The world has also achieved parity in primary education between girls and boys. There were 97 girls enrolled per 100 boys in 2010 - up from 91 girls per 100 boys in 1999.

The UN MDG Report warns Governments against allowing the current economic crisis to reverse the progress in reducing poverty.

(With PTI inputs)