SN Misra
The Child Development Index-2019 (CDI-2019), developed by the UK-based non-profit organisation Save the Children, has ranked India at 112, down from 103 in 2004. While the world has made significant progress in child health, education and nutrition, India has fared poorly among middle-income countries, while clocking good growth rates during the last decade.
The index combines measures of health, education and nutrition of 141 countries and brings out that in India 42 per cent children are underweight and 58 per cent are stunted by the age of two. India is also among the five countries — Nigeria, Congo, Pakistan and China are the others — that account for about half the world’s under-5 mortality figures. In these countries, the number of acutely malnourished children grew by 1.2 per cent during the 2000s. The problem is not the lack of programmes pertaining to children, but is largely institutional and one of the lack of political will.
The report in the Indian context clearly brings out how high-level of economic growth (about 7 per cent on average) does not translate into reduced child deprivation. Political leaders and policymakers devote little attention to the distributional effect of economic growth — particularly inclusive development of children. The report challenges the basic assumption that increases in household incomes will bring benefits to all family members, including children, to the same extent. Distributive developmental justice does not automatically follow economic growth.
The Rapid Survey of Children (2014), undertaken by the Unicef, underscored that the percentage of undernourished children has remained very high at about 38 per cent; most (33%) went on to become stunted. This is a violation of the rights of millions of children to have adequate food and nutrition. The NFHS report corroborates these findings.
The disconnect between growth indicators, such as GDP, savings, export and foreign exchange reserves, and human development parameters, such as quality primary schooling, healthcare and nutrition, after economic liberalisation has been one sad chapter in the India growth story
The report brings out how a decline in mortality rate is not in synchrony with growth rates. For instance, a sub-Saharan country such as Nigeria witnessed per capita income growth of 4.8 per cent during 1990-2005, while it also witnessed increase in child mortality by 4 per cent. In case of India, while the average growth rate during (2000-2015) has been about 7 per cent, the decline in infant mortality rate has been under 1 per cent, that is 44/1,000 (2000) to 38/1,000 (2015). What is most distressing is that the percentage of children suffering from severe malnourishment is not falling. It was 38.7 per cent in 2011 and 38.4 per cent in 2018.
Dropout from schools is another area of serious concern. While RTE Act (2009) and SSA have increased access to government schools to about 97 per cent, meeting the MDG target, the dropout percentage of children in the age group of (5-17) has increased from 18.6 per cent to 20.2 per cent during the last decade. The report does not comment on the quality of education and learning outcomes in the government. Dismal learning outcomes as documented in successive ASER surveys, inconveniences faced by girl children owing to distance from schools and the lack of usable toilets contribute significantly to such increasing trend in dropouts.
The report also mentions how an acute increase in income inequality contributes to such a distressing nutritional trend. The report underscores the importance of scaling up efforts to ensure child nutrition as a Central Development Objective. Cash transfer and breastfeeding programmes can help achieve this objective. It should enable the poor to participate in the growth process, ensure social protection and access to basic services. CDI-2019 flags the provision of quality education to girls and women as a priority area for improvement.
The disconnect between growth indicators, such as GDP, savings, export and foreign exchange reserves, and human development parameters, such as quality primary schooling, healthcare and nutrition, after economic liberalisation has been one sad chapter in the India growth story. The draft Educational Policy (2019) has rightly underscored the need to make pre-schooling and MDM from the age of 3-6 a fundamental right as anganwadi centres are ill-equipped to handle their myriad of responsibilities.
A World Bank study, ‘Voice of the Poor’, from 2000, flagged the need to promote opportunities, facilitate empowerment and enhancing security for the vulnerable sections of the society. Besides expanding economic opportunity through economic growth, it flagged the need for distributive justice such as land distribution, and access to human assets such as quality education and health. The report also suggests the need to supplement the initiatives by promoting global financial stabilisation, increasing foreign and assistance, and extending agricultural research and development to developing countries. The child is currently voiceless. It is only through political will and time-bound intervention that the present dismal trends in child nutrition can by reversed.
The Rapid Survey on Children (RSOC) report had also brought out how nearly 66 per cent of adolescent girls are thin and highly emaciated. Professor Partha Dasgupta brought out how lack of protein intake in the first four years of a child’s life can do irreversible damage to its brain. Perceptive study of anganwadi programmes clearly show that a large percentage of children do not get adequate quantity of proteins and micronutrients, affecting their skin, eyes and contributing to stunting. While Right to Food Act is in place, it does not address the specific concern of proper nutritional requirement of the child. Professor Robert Solow had observed that “a rising tide will lift all the boats”. He was alluding to the magnetic power of free market to bring prosperity to all. The CDI report has busted the myth that growth is a necessary but insufficient condition to provide for nutritional needs of a child. The vision of demographic dividend has the potential to turn into a demographic disaster unless programmes are properly monitored and the executing agencies are made accountable by political masters.
The writer teaches development economics.