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  • Title: Two steps forward; three backwards.
    Author: Jaswal IJ.
    Journal: Indian J Matern Child Health; 1991; 2(2):36-9. PubMed ID: 12320285.
    Abstract:
    The census indicated that India's population was about 850 million in 1991. This spiraling growth has resulted in a deteriorating standard of living, especially for women and children in the rural population. Minorities such as tribal women and low caste women also suffer disproportionately because of a lack of safe drinking water and fuel for the hearth. In certain areas women have to spend 3-4 hours to gather fuelwood. Despite achieving self-sufficiency in food-grain production by the 1980s, India's poor families do not have enough calories in their daily diets, they lack proper hygiene and sanitation, and do not send their children to school. In the remote villages of Arunachal Pradesh children are kept in school only for one year lest they get too much education and leave their families. Children are an economic asset to be put to work at an early age. Slum dwellers face not only an endless cycle of drudgery and hopeless poverty, but the associated evils of pests and diseases. The last 40 years and seven major economic plans have not made a dent in the lives of these people. All measures of poverty alleviation, rural and slum sanitation, child development schemes have eluded this group of people. Another segment of the population are rural people who were targeted by development programs, yet could not take advantage of the resources offered. Development programs are run by state and central governments, voluntary agencies, and cooperatives, but their performance remains unsatisfactory. General apathy is felt in the ranks of development workers, which is coupled with a corrupt bureaucracy and village leadership. Midday meal programs, soak pits, rural sanitation, immunization, and family welfare do not inspire this leadership. The bureaucracy has developed a vested interest in keeping the development workers as they are, and the funds received from international agencies are diluted down the line.
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