Newborn and child health
Let’s end preventable neonatal deaths and ensure Every Child ALIVE.
Ending preventable newborn and child deaths
India has made considerable progress in reducing newborn mortality, thereby reducing its share of the global newborn mortality burden from one-third of newborn deaths in 1990 to below one-fifth of total newborn deaths today.
Nearly 46 per cent of all maternal deaths and 40 per cent of neonatal deaths happen during labour or the first 24 hours after birth. Some of the major causes of newborn deaths among babies less than 29 days old are—prematurity and low birth weight (48 per cent), birth asphyxia and birth trauma (13 per cent), neonatal pneumonia (12 per cent) and non-communicable diseases (7 per cent)
Nearly 3.5 million babies in India are born too early, and one million newborns are discharged each year from Special Newborn Care Units (SNCUs). These newborns remain at high risk of death, stunting and developmental delay.
Many such deaths are largely preventable through access to skilled birth attendants and emergency health services during and after delivery. Enabling access to emergency services and obstetric care can go a long way in preventing the death of a newborn and its mother. In 2020, there were nearly one million fewer newborn deaths and 8520 fewer maternal deaths each month in India, as compared to 2016.
This progress results from dedicated efforts to encourage institutional delivery, which enables access to obstetric care and emergency services. More women are delivering in health facilities today than they did earlier.
Just over a decade ago, six out of ten women delivered at home without the support of a skilled birth attendant, putting both their and their newborn’s life at risk. Today, this number has reduced three-fold, with nine out of ten women delivering in a health facility. The quality-of-service delivery, though, needs to catch up with the increase in coverage.
Early initiation of breastfeeding—an essential to ensure the health of the child—has been recorded in just 41 per cent of cases, high rates of stillbirths (4 per 1000 births, Source: SRS 2022) and many deaths due to asphyxia in SNCUs are consequences of low quality of healthcare services delivery across the country.
The increase in coverage has also been inequitable among the majority of women who are tribal and from the poorest households. Often living in hard-to-reach areas, most women still deliver in their homes. So even though India has shown significant progress in the reduction of child mortality, the focus now needs to be on reaching the most marginalized, with particular attention on the girl child.
The rapid scale-up of SNCUs in the country has accelerated the reduction of neonatal mortality. However, it has also brought to light socio-cultural barriers, societal biases and gender disparity.
Though evidence reveals newborn girls as biologically more potent, they remain socially vulnerable due to widespread male child preference, reflected in the higher infant and under-five mortality of girl children. In India more girl babies die than boy babies (U5MR) and the gender differential in under-five mortality rate is by 2 points.
Immunization
For Every Child, Nutrition
UNICEF Good nutrition is fundamental to every child’s survival and development. Every child has the right to receive enough nourishment to grow healthy, irrespective of being a girl or a boy.
UNICEF’s role: UNICEF’s programmes around newborn health seek to reduce inequities in care, strengthen health systems and incorporate resilience and risk-informed planning. With a combination of adequate investment in the most disadvantaged communities and committed leadership, millions of excluded mothers and their newborns can be saved.
UNICEF’s focus on equitable reduction of neonatal deaths is in line with the Government of India’s India Newborn Action Plan, in which it is a crucial partner. The Action Plan aims to significantly reduce preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths and bring down neonatal mortality and stillbirth rates to ‘single digit’ by 2030.
UNICEF works with the Ministry of aHealth and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD), NITI Aayog and state governments to support planning, budgeting, policy formulation, capacity building, monitoring and demand generation.
Further, UNICEF engages in strategic partnerships with professional bodies like the National Neonatology Forum, the Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Societies of India, the Indian Academy of Paediatrics, medical colleges and academic institutions, civil society networks, the Parliamentarians Group for Children, media and the private sector to take forward the newborn survival agenda.
Currently, UNICEF is the lead partner in 39 out of 115 aspirational districts in India and is acting as the thematic technical lead for facility-based newborn care.
To improve the quality and coverage of facility-based newborn and child health care (SNCU, MNCU, KMC NBSU, paediatric care, NICU, PICU), UNICEF’s programmes focus on strengthening and building a resilient health system by:
i) Supporting GoI’s quality improvement initiatives for skilled birth attendance, essential newborn care and care of small and sick babies,
ii) Scale-up of SNCUs and creating one of the most extensive real-time online databases for sick newborns globally,
iii) Strengthening Paediatric Centre of Excellence, and iv) Capacity building of health care providers across India.
To ensure a continuum of care for mothers and newborns, UNICEF extends its efforts to provide safe, quality and respectful care in health facilities and at home.
It actively engages community health workers to strengthen linkages between health systems and communities and further sensitize, counsel and support pregnant women, families and communities to promote:
i) Institutional deliveries, followed by regular post-natal care visits,
ii) Early and exclusive breastfeeding till six months,
iii) Identification and management of nutrition and health-related issues of their child,
iv) Special care for sick and low birth weight babies, iv) Identification of danger signs in newborns and referral to the nearest health facility, with particular focus on improving care-seeking behaviour for the girl child, v) Immunization, vi) Post-partum family planning and birth spacing, etc.
To ensure an enabling environment for the proper growth and development of every child, UNICEF mobilizes communities with social and behavioural change initiatives to:
i) Generate demand for and uptake of quality MNH services, especially in hard-to-reach areas in aspirational districts,
ii) Address gender biases and harmful socio-cultural norms in newborn care-seeking.
The day of birth is the riskiest for both mother and newborn, with nearly half of all maternal deaths and 40 per cent of newborn deaths and stillbirths happening on the day a child is born.
Therefore, UNICEF prioritizes the day of birth with convergent interventions from health, nutrition, and WASH programmes that lead to a triple return on investments in terms of reducing maternal, stillbirth, and neonatal deaths.
Globally, UNICEF is focused on #EveryChildALIVE, a signature neonatal campaign that supports and accelerates UNICEF India’s efforts to eliminate preventable neonatal deaths by 2030, with a particular focus on the girl child.
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Let’s end preventable neonatal deaths and ensure Every Child ALIVE.
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Ending preventable newborn and child deaths
India has made considerable progress in reducing newborn mortality, thereby reducing its share of the global newborn mortality burden from one-third of newborn deaths in 1990 to below one-fifth of total newborn deaths today.
Nearly 46 per cent of all maternal deaths and 40 per cent of neonatal deaths happen during labour or the first 24 hours after birth. Some of the major causes of newborn deaths among babies less than 29 days old are—prematurity and low birth weight (48 per cent), birth asphyxia and birth trauma (13 per cent), neonatal pneumonia (12 per cent) and non-communicable diseases (7 per cent)
Nearly 3.5 million babies in India are born too early, and one million newborns are discharged each year from Special Newborn Care Units (SNCUs). These newborns remain at high risk of death, stunting and developmental delay.
Many such deaths are largely preventable through access to skilled birth attendants and emergency health services during and after delivery. Enabling access to emergency services and obstetric care can go a long way in preventing the death of a newborn and its mother. In 2020, there were nearly one million fewer newborn deaths and 8520 fewer maternal deaths each month in India, as compared to 2016.
This progress results from dedicated efforts to encourage institutional delivery, which enables access to obstetric care and emergency services. More women are delivering in health facilities today than they did earlier.
Just over a decade ago, six out of ten women delivered at home without the support of a skilled birth attendant, putting both their and their newborn’s life at risk. Today, this number has reduced three-fold, with nine out of ten women delivering in a health facility. The quality-of-service delivery, though, needs to catch up with the increase in coverage.
Early initiation of breastfeeding—an essential to ensure the health of the child—has been recorded in just 41 per cent of cases, high rates of stillbirths (4 per 1000 births, Source: SRS 2022) and many deaths due to asphyxia in SNCUs are consequences of low quality of healthcare services delivery across the country.
The increase in coverage has also been inequitable among the majority of women who are tribal and from the poorest households. Often living in hard-to-reach areas, most women still deliver in their homes. So even though India has shown significant progress in the reduction of child mortality, the focus now needs to be on reaching the most marginalized, with particular attention on the girl child.
The rapid scale-up of SNCUs in the country has accelerated the reduction of neonatal mortality. However, it has also brought to light socio-cultural barriers, societal biases and gender disparity.
Though evidence reveals newborn girls as biologically more potent, they remain socially vulnerable due to widespread male child preference, reflected in the higher infant and under-five mortality of girl children. In India more girl babies die than boy babies (U5MR) and the gender differential in under-five mortality rate is by 2 points.
Read More
Immunization
Immunization
For Every Child, Nutrition
UNICEF Good nutrition is fundamental to every child’s survival and development. Every child has the right to receive enough nourishment to grow healthy, irrespective of being a girl or a boy.
UNICEF’s role: UNICEF’s programmes around newborn health seek to reduce inequities in care, strengthen health systems and incorporate resilience and risk-informed planning. With a combination of adequate investment in the most disadvantaged communities and committed leadership, millions of excluded mothers and their newborns can be saved.
UNICEF’s focus on equitable reduction of neonatal deaths is in line with the Government of India’s India Newborn Action Plan, in which it is a crucial partner. The Action Plan aims to significantly reduce preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths and bring down neonatal mortality and stillbirth rates to ‘single digit’ by 2030.
UNICEF works with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD), NITI Aayog and state governments to support planning, budgeting, policy formulation, capacity building, monitoring and demand generation.
Further, UNICEF engages in strategic partnerships with professional bodies like the National Neonatology Forum, the Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Societies of India, the Indian Academy of Paediatrics, medical colleges and academic institutions, civil society networks, the Parliamentarians Group for Children, media and the private sector to take forward the newborn survival agenda.
Currently, UNICEF is the lead partner in 39 out of 115 aspirational districts in India and is acting as the thematic technical lead for facility-based newborn care.
To improve the quality and coverage of facility-based newborn and child health care (SNCU, MNCU, KMC NBSU, paediatric care, NICU, PICU), UNICEF’s programmes focus on strengthening and building a resilient health system by:
i) Supporting GoI’s quality improvement initiatives for skilled birth attendance, essential newborn care and care of small and sick babies,
ii) Scale-up of SNCUs and creating one of the most extensive real-time online databases for sick newborns globally,
iii) Strengthening Paediatric Centre of Excellence, and iv) Capacity building of health care providers across India.
To ensure a continuum of care for mothers and newborns, UNICEF extends its efforts to provide safe, quality and respectful care in health facilities and at home.
It actively engages community health workers to strengthen linkages between health systems and communities and further sensitize, counsel and support pregnant women, families and communities to promote:
i) Institutional deliveries, followed by regular post-natal care visits,
ii) Early and exclusive breastfeeding till six months,
iii) Identification and management of nutrition and health-related issues of their child,
iv) Special care for sick and low birth weight babies, iv) Identification of danger signs in newborns and referral to the nearest health facility, with particular focus on improving care-seeking behaviour for the girl child, v) Immunization, vi) Post-partum family planning and birth spacing, etc.
To ensure an enabling environment for the proper growth and development of every child, UNICEF mobilizes communities with social and behavioural change initiatives to:
i) Generate demand for and uptake of quality MNH services, especially in hard-to-reach areas in aspirational districts,
ii) Address gender biases and harmful socio-cultural norms in newborn care-seeking.
The day of birth is the riskiest for both mother and newborn, with nearly half of all maternal deaths and 40 per cent of newborn deaths and stillbirths happening on the day a child is born.
Therefore, UNICEF prioritizes the day of birth with convergent interventions from health, nutrition, and WASH programmes that lead to a triple return on investments in terms of reducing maternal, stillbirth, and neonatal deaths.
Globally, UNICEF is focused on #EveryChildALIVE, a signature neonatal campaign that supports and accelerates UNICEF India’s efforts to eliminate preventable neonatal deaths by 2030, with a particular focus on the girl child.
Explore more
Article
From Pilots to Policy: Innovation in India.
The state of Tamil Nadu partners with UNICEF and OECD to embed innovation in public governance
Read now
Article
The Girls who taught a school to listen
How Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBVs) residential schools in Purnea Bihar are proving that inclusion isn't about helping—it's about listening
Read now
News note
20 January 2026
Mumbai Climate Week 2026: UNICEF India and YuWaah to centre Children and Youth Voices
Read now
Article
Learning Together, Healing Faster
How Peer Support Meetings are Improving Healthcare in Rural Chhattisgarh
Read now
Share
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Stories
Take action
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Partner With Us
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Visit us on Twitter
Visit us on Instagram
Visit us on YouTube
Visit us on Facebook
Contact us
Legal
Report fraud, abuse, wrongdoing
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UNICEF strives to uphold the rights of every child, protecting them from harm and all forms of discrimination, so that they can grow up healthy and educated to reach their full potential. This work is in line with UNICEF’s globally recognized mandate and its support of national priorities.
ShareThis Copy and PasteSkip to main content India Toggle navigation Donate Home Health Programme Newborn and child health Let’s end preventable neonatal deaths and ensure Every Child ALIVE. UNICEF English हिंदी Ending preventable newborn and child deaths India has made considerable progress in reducing newborn mortality, thereby reducing its share of the global newborn mortality burden from one-third of newborn deaths in 1990 to below one-fifth of total newborn deaths today. Nearly 46 per cent of all maternal deaths and 40 per cent of neonatal deaths happen during labour or the first 24 hours after birth. Some of the major causes of newborn deaths among babies less than 29 days old are—prematurity and low birth weight (48 per cent), birth asphyxia and birth trauma (13 per cent), neonatal pneumonia (12 per cent) and non-communicable diseases (7 per cent) Nearly 3.5 million babies in India are born too early, and one million newborns are discharged each year from Special Newborn Care Units (SNCUs). These newborns remain at high risk of death, stunting and developmental delay. Many such deaths are largely preventable through access to skilled birth attendants and emergency health services during and after delivery. Enabling access to emergency services and obstetric care can go a long way in preventing the death of a newborn and its mother. In 2020, there were nearly one million fewer newborn deaths and 8520 fewer maternal deaths each month in India, as compared to 2016. This progress results from dedicated efforts to encourage institutional delivery, which enables access to obstetric care and emergency services. More women are delivering in health facilities today than they did earlier. Just over a decade ago, six out of ten women delivered at home without the support of a skilled birth attendant, putting both their and their newborn’s life at risk. Today, this number has reduced three-fold, with nine out of ten women delivering in a health facility. The quality-of-service delivery, though, needs to catch up with the increase in coverage. Early initiation of breastfeeding—an essential to ensure the health of the child—has been recorded in just 41 per cent of cases, high rates of stillbirths (4 per 1000 births, Source: SRS 2022) and many deaths due to asphyxia in SNCUs are consequences of low quality of healthcare services delivery across the country. The increase in coverage has also been inequitable among the majority of women who are tribal and from the poorest households. Often living in hard-to-reach areas, most women still deliver in their homes. So even though India has shown significant progress in the reduction of child mortality, the focus now needs to be on reaching the most marginalized, with particular attention on the girl child. The rapid scale-up of SNCUs in the country has accelerated the reduction of neonatal mortality. However, it has also brought to light socio-cultural barriers, societal biases and gender disparity. Though evidence reveals newborn girls as biologically more potent, they remain socially vulnerable due to widespread male child preference, reflected in the higher infant and under-five mortality of girl children. In India more girl babies die than boy babies (U5MR) and the gender differential in under-five mortality rate is by 2 points. Read More Immunization Immunization UNICEF Good nutrition is fundamental to every child’s survival and development. Every child has the right to receive enough nourishment to grow healthy, irrespective of being a girl or a boy. UNICEF’s role: UNICEF’s programmes around newborn health seek to reduce inequities in care, strengthen health systems and incorporate resilience and risk-informed planning. With a combination of adequate investment in the most disadvantaged communities and committed leadership, millions of excluded mothers and their newborns can be saved. UNICEF’s focus on equitable reduction of neonatal deaths is in line with the Government of India’s India Newborn Action Plan, in which it is a crucial partner. The Action Plan aims to significantly reduce preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths and bring down neonatal mortality and stillbirth rates to ‘single digit’ by 2030. UNICEF works with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD), NITI Aayog and state governments to support planning, budgeting, policy formulation, capacity building, monitoring and demand generation. Further, UNICEF engages in strategic partnerships with professional bodies like the National Neonatology Forum, the Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Societies of India, the Indian Academy of Paediatrics, medical colleges and academic institutions, civil society networks, the Parliamentarians Group for Children, media and the private sector to take forward the newborn survival agenda. Currently, UNICEF is the lead partner in 39 out of 115 aspirational districts in India and is acting as the thematic technical lead for facility-based newborn care. To improve the quality and coverage of facility-based newborn and child health care (SNCU, MNCU, KMC NBSU, paediatric care, NICU, PICU), UNICEF’s programmes focus on strengthening and building a resilient health system by: i) Supporting GoI’s quality improvement initiatives for skilled birth attendance, essential newborn care and care of small and sick babies, ii) Scale-up of SNCUs and creating one of the most extensive real-time online databases for sick newborns globally, iii) Strengthening Paediatric Centre of Excellence, and iv) Capacity building of health care providers across India. To ensure a continuum of care for mothers and newborns, UNICEF extends its efforts to provide safe, quality and respectful care in health facilities and at home. It actively engages community health workers to strengthen linkages between health systems and communities and further sensitize, counsel and support pregnant women, families and communities to promote: i) Institutional deliveries, followed by regular post-natal care visits, ii) Early and exclusive breastfeeding till six months, iii) Identification and management of nutrition and health-related issues of their child, iv) Special care for sick and low birth weight babies, iv) Identification of danger signs in newborns and referral to the nearest health facility, with particular focus on improving care-seeking behaviour for the girl child, v) Immunization, vi) Post-partum family planning and birth spacing, etc. To ensure an enabling environment for the proper growth and development of every child, UNICEF mobilizes communities with social and behavioural change initiatives to: i) Generate demand for and uptake of quality MNH services, especially in hard-to-reach areas in aspirational districts, ii) Address gender biases and harmful socio-cultural norms in newborn care-seeking. The day of birth is the riskiest for both mother and newborn, with nearly half of all maternal deaths and 40 per cent of newborn deaths and stillbirths happening on the day a child is born. Therefore, UNICEF prioritizes the day of birth with convergent interventions from health, nutrition, and WASH programmes that lead to a triple return on investments in terms of reducing maternal, stillbirth, and neonatal deaths. Globally, UNICEF is focused on #EveryChildALIVE, a signature neonatal campaign that supports and accelerates UNICEF India’s efforts to eliminate preventable neonatal deaths by 2030, with a particular focus on the girl child. Explore more Article From Pilots to Policy: Innovation in India. The state of Tamil Nadu partners with UNICEF and OECD to embed innovation in public governance Read now Article The Girls who taught a school to listen How Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBVs) residential schools in Purnea Bihar are proving that inclusion isn't about helping—it's about listening Read now News note 20 January 2026 Mumbai Climate Week 2026: UNICEF India and YuWaah to centre Children and Youth Voices Read now Article Learning Together, Healing Faster How Peer Support Meetings are Improving Healthcare in Rural Chhattisgarh Read now Share UNICEF Home What we do Research and reports Stories Take action About us Press centre Children in India Partner With Us Where we work Multimedia assets Campaigns Key data Frequently asked questions Become a donor Visit us on Twitter Visit us on Instagram Visit us on YouTube Visit us on Facebook Contact us Legal Report fraud, abuse, wrongdoing Cookie settings UNICEF strives to uphold the rights of every child, protecting them from harm and all forms of discrimination, so that they can grow up healthy and educated to reach their full potential. This work is in line with UNICEF’s globally recognized mandate and its support of national priorities. Skip to main content India Toggle navigation Donate Home Health Programme Newborn and child health Let’s end preventable neonatal deaths and ensure Every Child ALIVE. UNICEF English हिंदी Ending preventable newborn and child deaths India has made considerable progress in reducing newborn mortality, thereby reducing its share of the global newborn mortality burden from one-third of newborn deaths in 1990 to below one-fifth of total newborn deaths today. Nearly 46 per cent of all maternal deaths and 40 per cent of neonatal deaths happen during labour or the first 24 hours after birth. Some of the major causes of newborn deaths among babies less than 29 days old are—prematurity and low birth weight (48 per cent), birth asphyxia and birth trauma (13 per cent), neonatal pneumonia (12 per cent) and non-communicable diseases (7 per cent) Nearly 3.5 million babies in India are born too early, and one million newborns are discharged each year from Special Newborn Care Units (SNCUs). These newborns remain at high risk of death, stunting and developmental delay. Many such deaths are largely preventable through access to skilled birth attendants and emergency health services during and after delivery. Enabling access to emergency services and obstetric care can go a long way in preventing the death of a newborn and its mother. In 2020, there were nearly one million fewer newborn deaths and 8520 fewer maternal deaths each month in India, as compared to 2016. This progress results from dedicated efforts to encourage institutional delivery, which enables access to obstetric care and emergency services. More women are delivering in health facilities today than they did earlier. Just over a decade ago, six out of ten women delivered at home without the support of a skilled birth attendant, putting both their and their newborn’s life at risk. Today, this number has reduced three-fold, with nine out of ten women delivering in a health facility. The quality-of-service delivery, though, needs to catch up with the increase in coverage. Early initiation of breastfeeding—an essential to ensure the health of the child—has been recorded in just 41 per cent of cases, high rates of stillbirths (4 per 1000 births, Source: SRS 2022) and many deaths due to asphyxia in SNCUs are consequences of low quality of healthcare services delivery across the country. The increase in coverage has also been inequitable among the majority of women who are tribal and from the poorest households. Often living in hard-to-reach areas, most women still deliver in their homes. So even though India has shown significant progress in the reduction of child mortality, the focus now needs to be on reaching the most marginalized, with particular attention on the girl child. The rapid scale-up of SNCUs in the country has accelerated the reduction of neonatal mortality. However, it has also brought to light socio-cultural barriers, societal biases and gender disparity. Though evidence reveals newborn girls as biologically more potent, they remain socially vulnerable due to widespread male child preference, reflected in the higher infant and under-five mortality of girl children. In India more girl babies die than boy babies (U5MR) and the gender differential in under-five mortality rate is by 2 points. Read More Immunization Immunization UNICEF Good nutrition is fundamental to every child’s survival and development. Every child has the right to receive enough nourishment to grow healthy, irrespective of being a girl or a boy. UNICEF’s role: UNICEF’s programmes around newborn health seek to reduce inequities in care, strengthen health systems and incorporate resilience and risk-informed planning. With a combination of adequate investment in the most disadvantaged communities and committed leadership, millions of excluded mothers and their newborns can be saved. UNICEF’s focus on equitable reduction of neonatal deaths is in line with the Government of India’s India Newborn Action Plan, in which it is a crucial partner. The Action Plan aims to significantly reduce preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths and bring down neonatal mortality and stillbirth rates to ‘single digit’ by 2030. UNICEF works with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD), NITI Aayog and state governments to support planning, budgeting, policy formulation, capacity building, monitoring and demand generation. Further, UNICEF engages in strategic partnerships with professional bodies like the National Neonatology Forum, the Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Societies of India, the Indian Academy of Paediatrics, medical colleges and academic institutions, civil society networks, the Parliamentarians Group for Children, media and the private sector to take forward the newborn survival agenda. Currently, UNICEF is the lead partner in 39 out of 115 aspirational districts in India and is acting as the thematic technical lead for facility-based newborn care. To improve the quality and coverage of facility-based newborn and child health care (SNCU, MNCU, KMC NBSU, paediatric care, NICU, PICU), UNICEF’s programmes focus on strengthening and building a resilient health system by: i) Supporting GoI’s quality improvement initiatives for skilled birth attendance, essential newborn care and care of small and sick babies, ii) Scale-up of SNCUs and creating one of the most extensive real-time online databases for sick newborns globally, iii) Strengthening Paediatric Centre of Excellence, and iv) Capacity building of health care providers across India. To ensure a continuum of care for mothers and newborns, UNICEF extends its efforts to provide safe, quality and respectful care in health facilities and at home. It actively engages community health workers to strengthen linkages between health systems and communities and further sensitize, counsel and support pregnant women, families and communities to promote: i) Institutional deliveries, followed by regular post-natal care visits, ii) Early and exclusive breastfeeding till six months, iii) Identification and management of nutrition and health-related issues of their child, iv) Special care for sick and low birth weight babies, iv) Identification of danger signs in newborns and referral to the nearest health facility, with particular focus on improving care-seeking behaviour for the girl child, v) Immunization, vi) Post-partum family planning and birth spacing, etc. To ensure an enabling environment for the proper growth and development of every child, UNICEF mobilizes communities with social and behavioural change initiatives to: i) Generate demand for and uptake of quality MNH services, especially in hard-to-reach areas in aspirational districts, ii) Address gender biases and harmful socio-cultural norms in newborn care-seeking. The day of birth is the riskiest for both mother and newborn, with nearly half of all maternal deaths and 40 per cent of newborn deaths and stillbirths happening on the day a child is born. Therefore, UNICEF prioritizes the day of birth with convergent interventions from health, nutrition, and WASH programmes that lead to a triple return on investments in terms of reducing maternal, stillbirth, and neonatal deaths. Globally, UNICEF is focused on #EveryChildALIVE, a signature neonatal campaign that supports and accelerates UNICEF India’s efforts to eliminate preventable neonatal deaths by 2030, with a particular focus on the girl child.