Disparities in Health and Survival of Newborns among the Urban Migrants and Non-Migrants in Bangladesh

Subir Saha, Concern Worldwide, Bangladesh
Mohammad Kabir, Jahangirnagar University

Despite significant improvements in child survival in recent decades, infant and under-five mortality in Bangladesh remain unacceptably high among the developing countries with strong urban-rural differentials. In Bangladesh, nearly one in nine children dies before reaching age five. Neonatal mortality contributes to more than sixty percent of infant mortality and almost half of all under-five deaths. However, using the data of Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2004 it is evident that urban poor as well as rural to urban migrants have the worse health situation than the nation as a whole. The urban extreme poor have the highest neonatal death at 68 per 1000 live births. Newborn mortality is 1.5 times higher among urban migrants compared to children of urban natives (48 and 32 per 1000 live births respectively). So to achieve the MDG-4, Bangladesh must tackle these enormous differences in health status and survival chances among urban children.