India and many other countries are unlikely to achieve the UN Millennium Development goals of halving poverty and education for all children by 2015 admits India’s Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma while delivering a talk on “India & Africa - Partnership in the 21st Century” in London on Wednesday. While this honest confession from a Minister, usually rare, is appreciated, the question is what the government has been doing in the last seven years given that the Millennium Development goals were set by world leaders at the United Nations in 2000. What is the point of having ‘declarations’, ‘summits’ etc. when they become meaningless exercises without any real intentions to address the issues at hand? Interestingly the Minister’s comments were made at an international forum and this may take away due attention if the same comments were made at a national level.
India can look to its smaller neighbour Bhutan and learn from its guiding development philosophy what has come to be known as Gross National Happiness (GNH). This has earned praise even from a top World Bank official who said other countries should follow the Himalayan nation’s mantra which balances growth and sustainable development. The official went to the extent of suggesting that the concept of gross national happiness must be translated into gross international happiness. The World Bank looked at government performance across many countries with which it had partnered and Bhutan was clearly at the top. Not surprisingly India has a list of statistics that one is now used to seeing. It has the largest number of poor children of any nation, with an estimated 80 percent of its 400 million children severely deprived and 60 percent absolutely poor. Almost half of all children under 5 are malnourished and a third of newborns are significantly underweight.
While no doubt, poverty in India is endemic and does not make for easy solutions, one will have to ensure effective implementation of anti-poverty schemes. There is a plethora of such programs but all without much direction and focus leading to its colossal failure. Poverty alleviation programs in the country must be reorganized to give it greater focus and direction. Once, this is done the schemes that must be encouraged should include those relating to the creation of community assets, targeting individuals directly and improving the public distribution system in order that those living below the poverty line are able to get access to food grains at the subsidized rate.
Despite the growing economic clout of India as a major Asian powerhouse and the success stories on economic reforms and globalization, it is indeed a sad irony that endemic poverty continues to pervade the country’s rural landscape. Likewise, what should worry policy makers in the region is that nearly half of Asia’s families are not benefiting from economic growth and globalization. The sub-continent is a perfect case scenario: pressure of rapid population growth; scarce resources; lack of access to education, health care, clean water and sanitation; caste discrimination; and weak governance and corruption. Such scary statistics should be a clear warning that the menace of poverty will have a serious impact on the region’s future prospects, unless it is addressed now.
