India - Some Darker Sides
Posted : August 20, 2006 at 8:00 pm [IST]
I have been writing on the brighter side of India’s achievements in last 6 decades. Dr. Amartya Sen was very correct when he said, ‘the Nation must have a sense of shame too’. And there are many things that shames us.
Poverty: Though our poverty rates have declined from 54 per cent to 25 per cent in 60 years. But 300 million Indians, the whole population of many European countries, still live on below a dollar (Rs 46) a day. Over 1,00,000 farmers have committed suicide between 1993 and 2003, and another 15,000 killed themselves in the last three years. The average rural debt per farmer household is Rs 12,585. Can’t the rural poor have some positive access to emergency finance?
Healthcare: Hospital beds per 10,000 people that were 3.2 in 1947 have improved to only about 10 at the turn of the 21st century. Compared to 1.7 registered medical practitioners per 10,000 populations at Independence, the figure is now 5.6. Birth rate has declined from 40 per thousand to 25, but death rate has slumped from 27 to 8. Only 21 per cent of health spending by citizens is financed by the state. The GDP-health spending ratio is only 1.35. Some 60 per cent of Indians have no access to safe sanitation. The infant mortality rate is still 63, compared to 30 in China. 25 in every 1,000 newborns die before they are five. Only 45 per cent of our children are fully immunised.
Education: India spends only 2.8 per cent of the GDP on education. Some 13 million children are still out of school, compared to 25 million 20 years ago.
Women: Not even 18 out of 100 Indian women are working in the non-agricultural sector, compared to 40 per cent in China. Some 52 out of every 100 women above 15 are still illiterate as compared to only 13 in China. Female foeticide accounts for an estimated half-a-million missing female births in India every year, lowering the female sex ratio to a dismal 927:1,000. Women occupy only 8 per cent of total parliamentary seats.
Justice: Our courts have a backlog of 3.5 million cases.
Human Development Index (HDI): India has slipped to 127th rank-from 124th in 2002-in the UNDP’s annual human development report, which ranks 177 nations on parameters like poverty, gender equity, education, infant mortality rate and population with no access to water.
-From ‘Outlook’
India will have to work harder to get a respectable ranking in HDI. Every state’s performance must be measured on these parameters. People while voting must weigh the performances of the parties on this count.
- Indra
Category: Government Policy/Administration |
Leave a Comment