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Commonwealth Health Partnerships 2015

The designations and the presentation of material on this map, based on UN practice, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Commonwealth Secretariat or the publishers concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. There is no intention to define the status of Jammu and/or Kashmir, which has not yet been agreed on by the parties. KEY FACTS Joined Commonwealth: 1947 Population: 1,252,140,000 (2013) GDP p.c. growth: 4.7% p.a. 1990–2013 GNI p.c.: US$1,570 (2013) UN HDI 2014: World ranking 135 Life expectancy: 66 years (2013) Under-five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births): 53 (2013) Largest contribution to mortality: Cardiovascular diseases Government health expenditure: 1.3% of GDP (2013) General information The Republic of India, which lies across the Tropic of Cancer, comprises most of the Indian subcontinent. It also includes the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and the Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea. Its neighbours are Pakistan, Afghanistan and China to the north, then Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar (formerly Burma). In the south, the Palk Strait separates it from Sri Lanka. 184 Commonwealth Health Partnerships 2015 India comprises 29 states (including the Delhi National Capital Territory) and six union territories. Climate: The climate is hot with regional variations. Rajasthan and large parts of the north-west are dry (less than 750 mm annual rainfall) and the Thar Desert (in fact a semi-desert) receives around 300 mm. Four-fifths of rain falls in June–September, the season of the monsoon. April–June is generally hot, dry and dusty. Environment: The most significant environmental issues are: that finite natural resources support a very large and growing population; deforestation, soil erosion and desertification; air pollution with industrial effluents and vehicle emissions; and water pollution with raw sewage and run-off of agricultural pesticides. Population: 1,252,140,000 (2013); country population is the world’s second-largest, after China; 32 per cent of people live in urban areas and 14 per cent in urban agglomerations of more than a million people. Around 56 per cent of all Commonwealth residents and 18 per cent of all the people in the world live in India. The population growth rate stood at 1.6 per cent p.a. between the years 1990 and 2013. In 2013 the birth rate was 20 per 1,000 people (38 in 1970) and life expectancy was 66 years (29 in 1947 and 49 in 1970). The population of India is extremely diverse, comprising almost entirely peoples who have migrated from other parts of the world over previous millennia. Dravidian peoples, who came to India from the Mediterranean region some 5,000 years ago, now constitute about 25 per cent of the population and live predominantly in the southern states of India. Indo-Aryans, who account for more than 70 per cent of the population, came from Northern Europe 3,500–4,000 years ago. Later migrations included peoples from Central Asia and China. Economy: India is classified as a lower-middle-income economy by the World Bank. Health Child and maternal health: The rate of infant mortality in India was 41 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2013, with an under-five mortality rate of 53 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2013. Under-five mortality in India has been declining steadily since 1990. Although this decrease is encouraging, the under-five mortality rate has not yet reached the country’s target of 42 deaths per 1,000 live births as defined by Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4). In 2010 the three most prominent known causes of death for children below the age of five years were prematurity (27 per cent), acute respiratory infections (14 per cent), diarrhoea (11 per cent) and intrapartum-related complications (11 per cent). Other contributory causes were neonatal sepsis (eight per cent), congenital anomalies (six per cent), injuries (four per cent) and measles (two per cent). In 2013 India had an adjusted maternal mortality ratio of 190 deaths per 100,000 live births (this figure was estimated at 200 deaths per 100,000 by UN agencies/World Bank in 2010). India


Commonwealth Health Partnerships 2015
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