A report by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, UNICEF, says over six lakh children under the age of five years in India die every year of Diarrhoea and Pneumonia. The report said with six lakh nine thousand deaths in 2010, India topped the list of 75 countries with the highest mortality burden attributed to the two diseases.

According to the report, both diseases killed about twenty one lakh ninety seven thousand children under the age of five years in the same year, making up 29 per cent of all child deaths under age five worldwide.

The report noted that about half the world's deaths due to Pneumonia and Diarrhoea occur in just five most poor and populous countries such as India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and Ethiopia.

It further added that nearly 90 per cent of deaths due to Diarrhoea world over have been attributed to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.

The report has suggested simple interventions like introducing routine vaccination programmes could save scores of lives. It said one of the simplest and most effective ways to safeguard babies from the diseases is exclusive breast feeding.

The other simple ways to combat the diseases are promoting hand washing, enhancing access to safe drinking water and sanitation and disseminating oral rehydration salts to children with Diarrhoea and antibiotics to those with bacterial Pneumonia.

AIR correspondent reports, the UNICEF report comes a week before a planned meeting in Washington convened by the governments of Ethiopia, India and the US on child-survival objectives. Some 700 experts from the government and the private sector are expected to attend the meeting.