International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

The Indian government will be dispatching 500 doctors to rural areas of the country to train local health providers in checking the neo-natal mortality rate.

Each year one million newborn babies in India do not survive their first month, with 74 per cent of those dying in the first week, DNA reported.

This is mostly as a result of a lack of training in neo-natal problems given to rural medical assistants.

The ministry for health and welfare has trained 500 doctors, who will be sent to different states to pass on their knowledge to medical officers, nurses and mid-wives.

It is hoped that as a result the infant mortality ratio will be lowered from 53 in every 1,000 births to 30.

The 2012 target of the ministry is to reduce the number of deaths within one week of birth by 30 per cent.

"In our country, mainly in states like UP, Bihar and Rajasthan many newborns die because medical assistants in rural areas do not have adequate training and facilities to deal with common problems," joint secretary of health ministry Amit Mohan Prasad said.

Last month the report of Registrar General of India revealed that infant mortality in Madhya Pradesh is the highest in the country, the Central Chronicle reported. Of every 1,000 infants born last year, 70 died soon after birth in the area.