The Child Health programme under the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent (RMNCH+A) Strategy of the National Health Mission (NHM) comprehensively integrates interventions that improve child health and nutrition status and addresses factors contributing to neonatal, infant, under-five mortality and malnutrition. The National Population Policy (NPP) 2000, the National Health Policy 2002, Twelfth Five Year Plan (2007-12), National Health Mission (NRHM - 2005 – 2017), Sustainable Development Goals (2016-2030) and New National Health Policy, 2017 have laid down the goals for child health.

Child Health Goals under SDG:

Goal 3.2: By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborn and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1000 live births.

The major causes of child mortality in India as per the SRS reports (2010-13) are: Prematurity & low birth weight (29.8%), Pneumonia (17.1%), Diarrheal diseases (8.6%), Other non-communicable diseases (8.3%), Birth asphyxia & birth trauma (8.2%), Injuries (4.6%), Congenital anomalies (4.4%), Ill-defined or cause unknown (4.4%), Acute bacterial sepsis and severe infections (3.6%), Fever of unknown origin (2.5%), and all other remaining causes (8.4%) 

The major causes of infant mortality in India as per the SRS reports (2010-13) are: Prematurity & low birth weight (35.9%), Pneumonia (16.9%), Birth asphyxia & birth trauma (9.9%), Other noncommunicable diseases (7.9%), Diarrhoeal diseases (6.7%), Ill defined or cause unknown (4.6%), Congenital anomalies (4.6%), Acute bacterial sepsis and severe infections (4.2%), Injuries (2.1%), Fever of unknown origin (1.7%), and all other remaining causes (5.4%).

The major causes of neonatal deaths as per Sample Registration System Report (2010-13) are Prematurity & low birth weight (48.1%), Birth asphyxia & birth trauma (12.9%), Neonatal Pneumonia (12.0%), Other noncommunicable diseases (7.1%), Sepsis (5.4%), Ill defined or cause unknown (5.0%), Congenital anomalies(4.0%), Diarrhoeal diseases (3.1%), Injuries (0.9%), Tetanus (0.5%) and all other remaining causes (0.9%).