Better can sometimes be just not good enough. A recent study on global neonatal mortality from 1990 to 2009, spearheaded by the World Health Organization, shows that in India there has been a 33 per cent drop in deaths of babies of not more than three weeks old. Even then, nine lakh babies, less than a month old, died in India in 2009, and this is the highest figure in the world. The context will indicate the enormity of this failure for a nation supposedly growing into a powerhouse. In the last 20 years, the global neonatal mortality rate has declined, but more than half of all such deaths occurred in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Africa as a continent is not doing well in this regard anyway; in some places, newborn babies are dying in greater numbers than before. But comparisons with African countries cannot provide excuses. The report shows that four per cent of all babies born live in India in the last 20 years died within a month.

Experts have recommended three simple ways to reduce neonatal deaths by one-third immediately - improved hygiene at birth, breastfeeding and keeping the baby warm. In India, access to basic health is still poor in vast rural tracts. Added to this, drinkable water may be scarce, nutrition poor - especially for women, deliveries at home quite common, and education regarding the proper protection of mother and child pathetically lacking. Government intervention in health services delivery has simply not been aggressive enough. Then there is the dominant mindset to contend with. Indian society has traditionally been callous to both women and children, and the neonatal mortality rate, just like the imbalance in sex ratio, is another outcome of that. The disgrace of this is not felt strongly enough. The report also raises a question. Is the calculation correct? Can it have taken into account the thousands of newborn girls quietly killed at birth?