Nearly 1.08 million Indian children under the age of five years died in 2015–that’s 2,959 deaths every day or two each minute–many of them of causes that were preventable and treatable.

India’s under-five mortality rate (U5MR)–the probability that a child born in a specific year will die before reaching the age of five–was reported to be 43 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2015 in the Sample Registration System Statistical Report 2015, the latest available data. Child mortality is considered one of the bellwethers of the health and ...