According to the Human Development Report 2003, the infant mortality rate (IMR) in 2001 for developed countries like Sweden and Iceland is three per thousand live births. For India, the corresponding figure is 67. This means about seven among every 100 children born in our country die within 12 months of being born, many in the neo-natal stage. In Orissa, it’s even worse, with the IMR at 94 in its rural parts according to the latest Sample Registration System statistics: close to Rwanda’s IMR at 96.
