Surviving childhood in India and Ethiopia

Abstract

The precariousness of childhood in the developing world is most visible when the media spotlight falls on famine, natural disaster or civil war, but it casts a permanent shadow over family life in that world, as it did in Europe a hundred years ago. Premature death, life-threatening sickness, irreversible stunting of growth and the loss of a mother in childbirth are some of the most tangible evils of underdevelopment. Although poverty contributes to this dismal situation, many individual contingencies are avoidable to a substantial extent if people can be drawn into primary health-care systems that encourage them to exchange detrimental customs for better ideas of managing hygiene and parenthood.