In a strong rebuttal of claims by UN bodies against India's capability to achieve the millennium development goals (MDG) in maternal and child health, India has said that it will be able to meet the targets by 2015.

In a letter to WHO representative to India Neta Menabde, the Health and Family Welfare Ministry has said that India has so far brought a marked decline in both the Under-Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) and Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) and thus will be able to achieve the MDG targets on these fronts.

Certain UN bodies, including WHO, had expressed the fear that India may miss the MDG targets with regard to child and maternal health, going by the slow progress in this direction.

The Ministry claimed that as per estimates available from the office of Registrar General of India, the U5MR for 2008, 2009 and 2010 has been 69, 64 and 59 per 1,000 live births respectively, registering an annual decline of 7.2 per cent during 2008-09 and 7.8 per cent during 2009-10.

It said that if this decline continues with improved health systems and effective implementation of evidence based interventions, the rate of decline should actually continue to improve further.

"India will reach the U5MR of 39 per 1000 live births by 2015, almost achieving the MDG4 target," Manoj Jhalani, joint secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

With regard to MMR, he said that India will also achieve the MDG target of bringing it down below 150 per 1,00,000 live births.

"In fact a reduction of 388 points (about 86 per cent) has already been achieved by 2008 against the required reduction of 450 points by 2015," Jhalani said in his letter to WHO.

The Health Ministry said from an MMR of 600 per 1,00,000 live births in 1990 as per latest UN estimates, India's MMR stands at 212 per 1,00,000 live births in 2007-09 and is to be brought down to below 150 per 1,00,000 live births by 2015.

"Assuming that the annual rate of decline of 5.5 per cent observed between 2004-06 and 2007-09 will continue, India's MMR will decline from 212 in 2007-09 to 143 by 2015, well below the MDG target," Jhalani said.

As per Registrar General of India's estimates, the MMR declined from 254 per one lakh live birth in 2004-06 to 212 per one lakh live births in 2007-09, observing an average annual decline of 5.5 per cent, the ministry said.

As per MDG targets on child health, the aim is to reduce the U5MR among children by two-thirds between 1990 to 2015, thus bringing it down to 38 per 1,000 live births by 2015 in the country.

The MDG target with respect to maternal mortality is to reduce the MMR by three-quarters between 1990 to 2015, bringing it down to below 150 per one lakh live births in India.

Apprehensions have been raised over the slow progress on reducing the child and maternal health targets in the country, with UN bodies expressing their fears recently that India may miss the targets on certain fronts.