NEW DELHI: India has the highest number of under-five child deaths in the world, a new study led by UNICEF has revealed.

Some 1.5 million children under the age of five years died in India in 2015, which is about 20 per cent of the world’s under-5 deaths.

That means one in every 21 children being born in India dies before reaching the age of five Globally, 5.9 million under-five child deaths were reported this year.

Infectious diseases are the main killers of children under five years of age. The findings have been published in medical journal The Lancet.