World Bank calls for reforms in India

The World Bank has warned that India would not be able to reduce poverty and improve human development by 2015 without socio-economic reform...

The World Bank has warned that India would not be able to reduce poverty and improve human development by 2015 without socio-economic reforms percolating to the poor. In a latest report released by the Bank, it has sated that “without major improvement in policy, most states in India would not be able to accomplish the millennium development goals (MDGs), which calls for halving the global incidence of poverty and broad improvements in human development by 2015.”

The ‘World Development Report 2004: Making services work for poor people’ said improvement in human welfare would not occur unless poor receive wider access to affordable, better quality services in health, education, water, sanitation and electrification.

Bouquet to Kerala, brickbats to UP

NEW DELHI: Two states in India — Kerala and Uttar Pradesh — remain worlds apart in human development measured in terms of education, health and other basic services, the World Bank said. In almost all the human development indices like infant mortality, fertility rate, sex ratio, male and female school enrolment rates, primary schools and healthcare centres in villages, the report shows that kerala was way ahead of the national average while UP was below par. In a comparative study, the chapter titled ‘Spotlight on Kerala and Uttar Pradesh’ in the report said women born in Kerala can expect to live 20 years longer on an average than women born in UP. Infant mortality rate in UP is five times higher than Kerala. One-third of the girls in UP had never been to school while the southern state had universal enrolment, it said. Kerala’s fertility rate at 1.96 births per woman is comparable to that of US (2.1) and high-income european nations (1.7), while UP has fertility rate of 3.99, which is higher than national average of 2.85. (PTI)

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Commenting on the report, World Bank President James D Wolfensohn said “too often, key services fail poor people — in access, in quantity and in quality. Services work when they include all people. They work when we take a comprehensive view of development.”

The report illustrated “shoddy services” received by poor, citing a government-sponsored programme in Andhra Pradesh, saying the weaker section were supposed to get Rs 1,000 and 15 kg of rice for family planning operations but they get Rs 500 and 10 kg rice and make the poor run around for the rest.

“Much of the public spending never reaches poor people. In India, the richest fifth receives three times the curative care subsidy of the poorest,” World Bank lead economist Jeffrey Hammer said.

Although Indian public sector runs almost 2,00,000 primary health facilities and 15,000 secondary and tertiary facilities, World Bank said “wide public provisions does not always translate into substantial use.” “In India, even with the huge organisation of public health facilities, the private sector accounts for 80 per cent of the out-patient treatments and almost 60 per cent of in-patient treatments,” it said.

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Citing low quality of health services in the country, World Bank said “in India, the contamination of injection needles used by registered medical practitioners was alarmingly widespread.” Moreover, it noted that districts with a higher proportion of lower castes and some religious groups have fewer doctors and nurses. “Health outreach workers are less likely to visit lower-caste and poor households,” it said. Highlighting the poor quality of education, World Bank said “in random visits to 200 primary schools in India, investigators found no teaching activity in half of them.”

Giving an account of a school in North Bihar, the report said “conditions can be horrific. Classrooms are close to disintegration. Six children were injured in three separate incidents when parts of the building fell down and even now there is acute danger of terminal collapse.” Summing up the study on schools, World Bank said “half the schools visited had no drinking water available.”