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UPDATE

PROGRAMME REPORT
1st PIO-Parliamentarian Conference India registers

held in New Delhi significant decline

The first-ever Persons of Indian Origin 124 Members of Parliament and in child mortality
(PIO) Parliamentary Conference was 17 mayors from 23 countries including
held in the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra UK, USA, South Africa, Canada, Fiji, rate
(PBK) in New Delhi on the occasion Kenya, Mauritius, New Zealand, Sri India has registered significant
of Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas (PBD) on Lanka among others participated in decline in under five child mortality
January 9, 2018. It was inaugurated by this conference. rate. The rate of decline has doubled
Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The The biggest delegation was from over the last year. As per the Sample
conference was way of reaching out Guyana with 20 members of parliament Registration System data released on
to Indian community overseas by and three mayors. The event had two 12 January 2018, under-five child
Central government. The PIO Thematic Plenary Sessions – ‘PIO mortality (U5MR) of India showed an
Parliamentary Conference was Parliamentarians: A Journey from impressive decline by 9%, a 4 points
organised by Ministry of External Struggle to Parliament’ and ‘Resurgent decline from 43 per 1000 in 2015 to 39
Affairs to forge stronger ties with PIO. India: Role of PIO Parliamentarians’. in 2016. The rate of decline has
doubled over the last year. Not only
POLITICAL this, number of under-five deaths for
the first time in the country have come
1.9 crore names in first draft of Assam down to below 1 million with nearly
NRC 120,000 fewer under-five deaths in 2016
as compared to 2015. Most of the
Nearly 32 years after the Assam midnight of March 24, 1971 and their states have shown good progress in
Accord was signed, the first draft of descendants and all Indian citizens reduction of under-five child mortality
an updated National Register of including their children and from the previous year, except
Citizens (NRC) for the State listed 1.90 descendants who have moved to Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Uttarakhand,
crore names out of the 3.29 crore Assam post March 24, 1971. which have shown a slight increase
applicants. The updated NRC was The time frame for the publication over the previous year and Telangana,
published on December 31, 2017. of the NRC draft was set by the which has shown no change in 2016.
Assam is the only State in the country Supreme Court which has been According to the SRS data, the
that prepared an NRC in 1951 monitoring the entire process of gender gap in India for child survival is
following the census of that year and updating the 1951 NRC in Assam. reducing steadily; the gender difference
has become the first State to get the The court had turned down a plea between female and male under-five
first draft of its own updated NRC. by the Central government last month mortality rates has now reduced to 11%
The NRC, 1951, is updated in for an extension of the time frame till which was as high as 17% in 2014. The
Assam with the names of applicants July 31, 2018, and directed that the first current under-five mortality for male
whose names appear in NRC, 1951, or draft be published at the midnight of child is 37 per 1000, while for female child
any electoral rolls of the State up to December 31. is 41 per 1000 live births. Amongst the
bigger states, seven states
POLITICAL (Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, MP,
Odisha, Tamil Nadu Telangana) have
Bengaluru becomes first city to get its reversed the gender gap in survival of
female child, while four of these have
own logo reversed the gender gap for under-five
survival. These are Madhya Pradesh,
Brand Bengaluru got its own logo on be used to enhance tourism in Karnataka. Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
24 December 2017— the tagline The rolling font was devised by Telangana, West Bengal, Odisha,
‘Bengaluru - Be U’ (be you) is expected bankers-turned-designers Rushi Punjab and Delhi have depicted less
to build the city’s image on the global Patel and M Venkateswara Rao, than 5% gap in mortality of female child
stage. The city is the first to gets its founders of Nammur, a design firm. and are within striking distance to
own identity badge. Selected from The first two letters, B, E, and the last, reverse the gender gap. The maximum
1,350 entries, the logo aims to signify U, of Bengaluru are in red, highlighting gender gap in survival of under-five
Bengaluru’s cosmopolitan culture, a the tagline Be U. The seventh and for female child is in Bihar (46% higher
sense of belonging, 480-year history eighth letters (U and R) resemble the mortality for female child), followed by
Haryana (23%), Kerala (20%), Assam,
and futuristic outlook. The logo would vowel, oo, in Kannada.
Karnataka (19%) and Rajasthan (17%).
March 2018 Competition Wizard 33