ISLAMABAD: An estimated 15,000 babies were born in Pakistan on New Year’s Day (Tuesday), accounting for four per cent of all babies born in the world on the first day of 2019, said the United Nations agency for children.

According to Unicef — which worked with the World Data Lab — of the 395,072 babies born around the world on January 1, a quarter of them were born in South Asia alone.

As the clock struck midnight, Sydney greeted an estimated 168 babies, followed by 310 in Tokyo, 605 in Beijing, 166 in Madrid and 317 in New York.

The year’s first baby was most likely delivered in Fiji in the Pacific, while the United States delivered the last. Globally, over half of these births were estimated to take place in eight countries, with Pakistan at fourth place.

Unicef estimated that on January 1, 69,944 babies were born in India; China (44,940); Nigeria (25,685); Pakistan (15,112); Indonesia (13,256); United States of America (11,086); Congo (10,053); and Bangladesh (8,428).

However, in many countries, the babies would not even be named as they won’t make it past their first day.

In 2017, about one million babies died the day they were born, and 2.5m in just their first month of life. Among those children most died from preventable causes such as premature birth, complications during delivery and infections like sepsis and pneumonia, a violation of their basic right to survival.

“This New Year’s Day, let’s all make a resolution to fulfil all rights of every child, starting with the right to survive,” said Aida Girma, Unicef representative in Pakistan. “We can save millions of babies if we invest in training and equipping local health workers so that every newborn is born into a safe pair of hands,” she added.

The year 2019 also marks the 13th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Unicef will be commemorating with worldwide events throughout the year. Under the convention, governments are committed to taking measures to save every child by providing good quality healthcare.

Over the past three decades, the world has seen remarkable progress in child survival, cutting the number of children worldwide who die before their fifth birthday by more than half. However, there has been slower progress for newborns. Babies dying in the first month account for 47pc of all deaths among children under five.

Unicef’s ‘Every Child Alive’ campaign calls for immediate investment to deliver affordable, quality healthcare solutions for every mother and newborn. These include a steady supply of clean water and electricity at health facilities, the presence of a skilled health attendant during birth, ample supplies and medicines to prevent and treat complications during pregnancy, delivery and birth, and empowering adolescent girls and women who can demand a better quality of health services.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2019