More than one month
has gone by since the new government at the centre led by Narendra Modi of
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took over the reins. The massive mandate, cutting
across all sections of society which BJP alone received in 2014 general
election has raised the hope and aspirations of every common man to a new high
- not without reason as even Modi made them believe all through his election
campaign that good days are coming (Achche Din Aanewaale Hain).
It’s a common
knowledge that the new government has lot of urgent tasks ahead - inflation,
low GDP growth, Fiscal Deficit, social disparity etc. And hence there is bound to be intense
pressure to perform within shortest possible time. Nevertheless, certain core
issues need to be addressed on highest priority by Modi government to instil
trust and confidence among millions of poor and disadvantaged section of our
society throughout the length and breadth of this vast country. Consequently,
the following points of serious concern must find place in top agenda not for
talking, but for sincere implementation:
Malady of Starvation Deaths: India is topping the list of countries in World Hunger Chart. More than 30%
of the world's hungry population lives in India. Over 200 million people sleep
hungry every night. Data suggests that on an average every day 7000 people die
of hunger in the country having no shortage of food grains, rather lacs of ton
of food grains go waste due to administrative mismanagement.
Problem of Drinking Water: Out of the 6.38 lakh revenue villages in India, more than 30% have water
problems. 21% of communicable diseases in India are related to unsafe water.73%
of respondents of a question as to what truly make them proud of being an
Indian said, "It is availability of safe drinking water to every
Indian."
Literacy/Education Problem: Our literacy percentage is only 74%; Kerala being the highest with 94% and
Bihar being the lowest with 63%. School dropout percentage is still more than
40%. The drop out percentage is even worse than that of Bangladesh and Vietnam
- countries that got independence more than two decades later. We spend less
than 2% of our national budget on education for the children who constitute 25%
of our total population. The dropout percentage is higher among tribal,
economically weaker sections of society etc.
Sanitation/Open Defecation Problem: Going by
the statistics, even after 66 years of independence 53% Indian population lack sanitation facilities. India is termed as the
world's capital of open defecation. As per the data of 2011 Census, 53% households in the country don't have
toilet facilities while the figure is much higher at 69.3% in Rural
India. In spite of having the highest number of open defecators in the
world, it is regrettable that India does not feature among the countries making
great strides in reducing open defecation. On the other hand smaller countries
like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Peru, Brazil have done exceedingly well in reducing
the prevalence of open defecation by adopting several effective measures. It is
a common knowledge that defecation in open is fraught with high risk of
microbial contamination of water which is a major cause of diarrhoea and other
intestinal infections among the children in particular. According to a UN
report, countries where open defecation is most widely practised have the highest
number of deaths of children under the age of five, as well as high levels
of under-nutrition, high levels of poverty and large disparities between the
rich and the poor.
Generally speaking, women and girls, particularly
in villages find it very embarrassing and insulting for not having the facility
of a toilet at home as they have no other option but to defecate in the open
only after sunset or well before sunrise, that too at the cost of their health
and personal safety.......(Can you ever forget the recent report in Indian
media about the most horrific and shameful incident of rape and murder of two
teenage sisters aged 14 and 15 years belonging to disadvantaged section of
society who had gone in to the fields in the evening to defecate because there
was no toilet in their homes. Their bodies found hanging from a mango tree in
Katra Sadatganj village in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh on 28th
May,2014). It has been a painful reality that inadequate supply of clean and
drinkable water together with lack of toilet and urinal facilities in schools
are major cause of poor attendance and health problems of the children. As far
as adolescent girls are concerned, they tend to drop out of the school due to
these reasons.
Health & Nutrition Problem: Can we think of a strong India without healthy and strong citizens, present
and future? It is rightly stressed that Healthy Indians = Healthy & Strong
India. Child nutrition and their overall health need extra care in India as one
in every three malnourished children in the world live in India; 8.8 lakh
children die every year, more than 100 deaths per hour in India; the IMR
(Infant Mortality Rate) in many states is still more than 50 per thousand for
children up to the age of 5 years where as it should be at least below 30 per
thousand; about 50% of all childhood deaths are attributed to malnutrition; 26%
of the world's childhood vaccine preventable deaths take place in the country;
Anaemia affects 74% of children under the age of three; as high as 44% children
under five years are underweight; malnutrition in early childhood has serious
long term consequences because it impedes development of vital life organs.
There are, no doubt
many more pressing problems like price rise, unemployment, law & order,
corruption etc. before the country which demand serious attention of power that
be at all levels, but to start with the issues enumerated above would
definitely give the right signal to common people at large that this government
is really doing well rather than talking well. And we all know, well begun is
half done.
Published in Indian Currents.org on 30.06.2014 (Issue No. 27)
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