India’s areas of darkness

CHILD HEALTH & EDUCATION India’s areas of darkness A devastating indictment of shining post-liberalisation India’s child health and education record by Unicef has caused barely a ripple in the imposing offices of the country’s top politicians and bureaucrats. Or in middle class India.  Dilip Thakore reports In any western democracy the ground would have trembled, media editorials would have thundered, ministers would have resigned and perhaps the government would have fallen. But in the sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic Republic of India whose Constitution promises to secure justice, liberty, equality and fraternity to all citizens, the release in Delhi of State of the World’s Children 2008, a United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) report, on January 22 caused barely a ripple. In the airy offices of the country’s top politicians and bureaucrats housed within the imposing red sandstone structures of (architect) Edward Lutyen’s New Delhi, and in the administrative capitals of India’s 28 state governments and seven Union territories, it was malingering and business as usual. On the contrary a few days later on January 26, the country’s ruling neta-babu class staged a grand Republic Day parade in the nation’s capital showcasing the country’s military might as armoured vehicles mounted with heavy duty howitzers, battle tanks and splendidly attired mounted troops filed along the Rajpath which leads from the 340-roomed presidential palace to the houses of Parliament even as screaming squadrons of mach 3 jet planes thundered overhead. In the preparations leading up to this archaic Soviet-style grand annual parade (at which France’s glamorous new President Nicholas Sarkozy was the chief guest) and in its after glow, SWC 2008’s devastating indictment of shining post-liberalisation India for tolerating the world’s worst child healthcare and nutrition record was greeted with resounding silence. Nor was contemporary India’s subsidies and privileges grabbing new 200-million strong, epicurean middle class engaged in an orgy of conspicuous consumption, in any mood to remind the Congress-led, 17-party coalition UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government at the Centre, of its obligation to address this vital issue with deep implications for the country’s future. Comments the preamble of SWC 2008 which states that “every day on average more than 26,000 children under the age of five die around the world, mostly from preventable causes” and examines the child healthcare records of 195 countries around the world: “Child mortality is a sensitive indicator of a country’s development and telling evidence of its priorities and values. Investing in the health of children and their mothers is not only a human rights imperative, it is a sound economic decision and one of the surest ways for a country to set its course for a better future.” Quite obviously this self-evident truism is news to India’s 28,000-strong Planning Commission which since India proclaimed itself a republic in 1950, has drawn up eleven elaborate five year plans to mastermind national development. According to SWC 2008, over 2 million Indian children aged below five died in 2006. They were perhaps the fortunate ones because 30 percent (38 million) of fast-track India’s 126 million children are low birth weight infants; 43 percent…