Open Access Journal │www.njcmindia.org pISSN 0976 3325│eISSN 2229 6816 National Journal of Community Medicine│Volume 7│Issue 5│May 2016 Page 442 ORIGINAL ARTICLE pISSN 0976 3325│eISSN 2229 6816 Open Access Article www.njcmindia.org UNDER-FIVE MORTALITY RATE REDUCTION-A CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY FOR MADHYA PRADESH, INDIA Kishor P Brahmapurkar 1 , Vaishali K Brahmapurkar 2 , Sanjay P Zodpey 3 Financial Support: None declared Conflict of interest: None declared Copy right: The Journal retains the copyrights of this article. However, re- production of this article in the part or total in any form is permissible with due acknowledgement of the source. How to cite this article: Brahmapurkar KP, Brahmapurkar VK, Zodpey SP. Under-Five Mortality Rate Reduction-A Challenge and Opportu- nity for Madhya Pradesh, India. Ntl J Community Med 2016; 7(5):442-448. Author’s Affiliation: 1 Associate Professor; 2 Assistant Profes- sor, Department of Community Medi- cine, L.B.R.K.M. Government Medical College, Jagdalpur, Bastar, Chhattis- garh, India, Jagdalpur; 3 Director, Public Health Foundation India (PHFI), Public Health Foundation India (PHFI), New Delhi, New Delhi Correspondence: Dr Kishor Parashramji Brahmapurkar kishor_brahmapurkar@rediffmail.com Date of Submission: 23-04-16 Date of Acceptance: 30-05-16 Date of Publication: 31-05-16 ABSTRACT Introduction: India was leading in total number of under-five deaths in 2015 with 1.2 million deaths. The present study was planned to find the differences among the factors related to con- tinuum of care for maternal, newborn and child health that may be associated with higher U5MR in Madhya Pradesh as compared Tamilnadu. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out from the data of 13 States available from NFHS-4. Data entry and analysis using chi-square was done with help of statistical software OpenEpi. Results: There was significantly lower women’s education, higher child marriages and poor maternal, newborn and child health care such as poor ANC, poor PNC and poor immunization, poor nutri- tional status etc. in rural and urban areas of MP compared to TN. Conclusions: MP had challenges of lower women’s education, higher child marriages, poor antenatal and postnatal care and other factors related to continuum of care for maternal, newborn and child health in rural and urban areas compared to Tamil Nadu (TN). Keywords: Under-five mortality rate, Madhya Pradesh, Antenatal, Post-natal, Skilled birth attendant, Breastfeeding INTRODUCTION India was leading in total number of under-five deaths in 2015 with 1.2 million under-five deaths and 20 percent share of global under-five deaths. 1 In 2015, globally India ranked 48 for under-five mortality rate (U5MR) with U5MR of 48 per 1000 live births and it was higher than global average of 43 per 1000 live births and also higher when com- pared with adjacent countries i.e. Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh with U5MR of 10, 36 and 38 per 1000 live births respectively. 1 As per WHO 5.9 million children under the age of 5 died in 2015 and more than 50 % of under-five deaths are preventable by simple, affordable meth- ods like quality antenatal care, skilled attendant at birth, quality postnatal care to newborn, early ini- tiation of breastfeeding within hour of delivery and immunization along with oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea and antibiotics for pneumonia and nutritional supplements. 2 Sustainable Devel- opment Goal (SDG) goal 3 target 3.2 is to end pre- ventable deaths of newborns and under-5 children by 2030. 2 As per the results from the first phase of the Na- tional Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), 2015-16 re- leased in January 2016 for 13 states, U5MR was found unevenly distributed among the states