These are the official claims but even in this cursory summation some areas emerge as Bermuda Triangles. At least four need immediate attention. The first is persistent malnutrition among India’s children, with the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) data indicating that 46 per cent of Indian children under three are underweight. Of course, there are wide variations even of this figure, depending on the location and the social profile of the children — for instance, in 1998, the under-5 mortality rate was 126.6 for tribal children, when the all-India figure was 94.9.

The second area of concern is India’s high maternal mortality level. This is the direct consequence of three factors: One, the lack of agency of the expectant mother: NFHS-3 estimates that 45 per cent of Indian women were married before they reached 18. Two, the poor health of the mothers: NFHS-3 reveals that 56.2 per cent of “ever-married women aged 15-49” were anaemic. Three, serious infrastructural lacunae, ranging from poor quality village roads to poorly equipped primary health centres and district hospitals.

School education is the third concern. Here it is not so much access to schools that is the problem — we can claim that almost all Indian children have a school within one kilometre of their homes. The real problem is that of retention — both in terms of children remaining in school beyond a few years and their being able to retain and gain from what they have been taught. The fact that at least a quarter of teachers on the rolls of primary schools are absent does not help matters.

... contd.