Infant deaths down in Rajasthan to 55 from 74

A five-year-long project on reproductive and child health in Rajasthan has yielded encouraging results, bringing down infant deaths in the state to 55 from 74 in 2006, the project officials said Tuesday. The project, which ended in June this year, was implemented in 180 villages of seven districts in Rajasthan with the financial assistance of Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). Also, the live births reported in the project areas were 54 percent boys and 46 percent girls as against 60 percent boys and 40 percent girls in 2006. These findings were disclosed at a state-level dissemination workshop organised here by Adhar Research Institute, a Jaipur based NGO which conducted the project with the network of 10 NGOs.