On the day that the UN Human Development Index revealed last week that even Bangladesh was doing better than India in human development, our Minister of Human Resource Development published an advertisement in this newspaper (September 7, 2005) that would have shamed Marie Antoinette. In her case we are not certain if she asked France’s starving peasants to eat cake if they had no bread but in Shri Arjun Singh’s case we have it in black and white that he wants India’s starving children to increase their Vitamin A intake.This is to be found in, ‘‘Foods of animal origin — whole milk, curd, butter, ghee, egg yolk, liver, etc. and liver oil of certain fish. Yellow, red and green-coloured fruits and vegetables — mango, papaya, carrot, pumpkin, green leafy vegetables etc.’’ The advice, in English and in a newspaper that nobody below the poverty line reads draws attention to the wastefulness of government advertising campaigns and their callousness. Why else would the HRD Ministry be celebrating National Nutrition Week when Maharashtra is reporting starvation deaths in Melghat, district Amravati?Is the HRD Minister aware that the reason why more than a thousand children have died in Melghat this year is because their parents cannot afford to feed them more than one meal of watery gruel a day? They would feed them coloured fruits and vegetables, eggs and milk if they could afford to and if they knew enough English to read the HRD Ministry’s advice.Government advertising campaigns of this kind should be banned and the Department of Audio Visual Publicity (DAVP) closed. Its relevance as the main instrument of government propaganda died with socialism and even then only officials believed their own rubbish.More important, though, is for the Sonia-Manmohan government to realise that we need a Ministry of Human Resource Development that is more than a parking lot for aged loyalists. A new, revamped ministry is needed with a young, dynamic Minister at its head. Someone like Sam Pitroda. Even then it will only work if it combines the departments of health, sanitation and education and if it is given the highest importance. We need to remember that the most important economic reform the government can affect is in the area of human development. Half of India’s population is below the age of 25 and these young people can either be a vital resource if they are healthy and educated or a huge liability if they grow up half starved and illiterate.Unless the Prime Minister (or his boss) realises the gravity of the crisis that stares us in the face they will grow up half starved and illiterate. This is because schools, healthcare, sanitation and hygiene in the ‘‘real India’’ are in total collapse. This is why India remains shamefully at 127 (out of 177 countries) in this year’s Human Development Index. The index measures life expectancy, school enrollment, literacy, gender equity, income, sanitation and hygiene to come to its conclusions.Bangladesh has risen 14 places in the HDI since 1990 because child and infant mortality rates have fallen at more than 5% a year, twice that of India, and it has done well in reducing malnourishment in pregnant mothers and school enrollment.India does badly because no major Indian politician has paid more than passing attention to the horrors of life below the poverty line. So neglected is this area that different departments of government have different measures of who falls below this poverty line. For further information on this contact Ramesh Ramanathan of Janagraha who is working on a common BPL list for Bangalore.Once we establish which districts in which states have large numbers of people living below the poverty line we can begin to discuss the measures that need to be taken to lift them out of extreme poverty. It is the view of this columnist that the first thing that needs to be done is to ensure that children living in extreme poverty are provided one nutritious meal a day (butter, ghee, green leafy vegetables) and if this is combined with school education so much the better. Instead of wasting money on silly advertising campaigns the HRD Ministry should concentrate on developing a model midday meal programme. Again, may I recommend a Bangalore NGO called Akshaypatra as a consultant.When it comes to healthcare the immensity of the problem deters me from offering solutions. There are no simple ones. To this day, despite being a frequent traveller in rural India, I have not come across a primary health centre or village hospital that met minimum international standards of hygiene or healthcare.Whenever I have mentioned this to political leaders in Delhi they have a single answer: healthcare is a state subject. Fine. Then why have a Union Minister of Health? As we do have one should he not be doing more than banning smoking in Hindi films?When it comes to sanitation there are easy solutions. Last year I visited Malwadi village near Sangli where every home had its own private toilet. This was the result of a campaign by a Dalit woman sarpanch called Chhaya Kamble who made it the mission of her five-year term. The private toilets caused the incidence of disease to come down by more than 80 per cent and created in the residents of Malwadi aspirations of an improved standard of living. What happened in Malwadi can be replicated across India at almost no cost but you need political will. Just as you need political will if India is to move up on next year’s Human Development Index.Write to tavleensingh@expressindia.com
