Living with such a data gap!

That data gap needs filling, and hopefully, with the information gathering process already set in motion by UNICEF, it won't be long before we do the catching up with the calendar.

The revelation does make the fact of our having brought down the child mortality rate sound like something of a myth. And, there lies a message which is that child healthcare must adopt as one of its core component a strategy for injury prevention.

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The deaths are caused mainly by drowning, road accidents, burns, falls, animal bites, electrocution, suffocation and internal injuries. This is not to forget that a huge number of children are disabled and orphaned by the accidents. In all, it is an injury epidemic we have been living with without even knowing about the progeny attrition.

The immediate remedial option for us is to launch a massive awareness campaign among the rural masses, in particular, about the incipient, yet avoidable, dangers of accidental deaths during infancy. The health and family welfare minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain who released the survey report on Monday thought this was a revelation to the government. We, for our part, confess to having been caught unawares by the surging new dimension to child mortality ascribed to accidents and injuries, even though there must have been news reports from time to time on the mishaps, sans perhaps the required focus on child victims. While we make it up with a fresh vulnerable children-oriented approach, we do think that the government, the NGOs and the community have a lot to do to not only sensitise the poorer households about taking the toddlers under their wings in a real sense but also to provide material support by way of extending a protective umbrella over the children.