They may be the standard bearers of Asia’s economic growth, yet the continent’s two giants, India and China, have failed to ensure that such achievements benefit their children, says a UN report.

That is reflected in the rate at which children under five years die annually from among the poor in both countries, states the ‘Human Development Report 2005’, an annual publication by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), released on Wednesday.

In China, while the per capita income growth rate increased from 8.1 per cent in 1980 to 8.5 during the 1990-2003 period, the annual rate of under-five child mortality fell from only 2.3 per cent in 1980 to 1.9 per cent during the 1990-2003 period, states the report.

India’s drop in under-five child mortality rates are even slower, adds the report, pointing to annual child mortality rate declining from 2.9 per cent in 1980 to 2.3 per cent during the 1990s.

‘’Developments in India and China have global implications,’’ the report states, given that they account for a sizeable number of the estimated 11.4 million children under five years who die every year, many during the neonatal period.

At the same time countries that trail both India and China in the region on the economic front, such as Bangladesh and Vietnam, have done better to save the lives of their most vulnerable. ‘’Had India matched Bangladesh’s rate of reduction in child mortality, 732,000 fewer children would die this year,’’ says the report. ‘’Had China matched Vietnam’s, 276,000 lives could be saved’’.

In 1970, Bangladesh had an under-five child mortality of 239 per 1,000 live births, which dropped to 69 under-five child deaths per 1,000 live births by 2003. In the same period, Vietnam went from having 87 children dying per 1,000 live birth in 1970 to 23 children dying per 1,000 live births by 2003. This story of contrasts has compelled the authors of the report to conclude that impressive economic growth in a country does not necessarily translate into an equally impressive human development condition.

India, on the other hand, sets aside 1.3 per cent of its GDP for public health, while 2.1 per cent of the GDP goes for military expenditure. Child mortality rates are a key indicator of human development, for they reflect the ‘’links between income and social progress,’’ states the report. Besides India and China, countries with high under-five mortality rates in Asia include the Maldives, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal, East Timor and Papua New Guinea.

The report’s findings on child mortality adds to the pressure developing countries face to meet a pledge made by their leaders to reduce by two-thirds the under-five mortality rate by 2015. That pledge was one among the eight that made up the time-bound Millennium Development Goals aimed at improving the quality of life of the world’s 1.2 million poorest people who live on less than a dollar a day. — IPS