India's Dreadful Failings
Hugely populous India's economy is booming. Her production and transport infrastructure, foreign exchange reserves, immense resources and political stability are helping India to lead the charge into the 21st century and beyond. Along with China whose demographic, skilled labour force and ability to under-price competitors with its finished goods has other countries' entrepreneurs wringing their hands in dismay.India's middle class is growing, along with China's. Her economy has accelerated by over 8% a year since 2003, hitting $4 trillion (in purchasing power parity) last year. Over double the economy of the entire continent of Africa. But there's something wrong within this burgeoning economic giant. While India is not lacking the funds to do more, its government spends a mere one percent of GDP on health care.
As a comparison, both Canada and the U.S. spend over 40% of their GDP on health care for their populations. The problem appears to be that no one really cares about anyone else. In India, it appears to be a matter of 'me first' and who gives a damn about those in need. India historically, culturally, is a huge population-diverse country with a rigid caste system. Though there are now laws imposed to outlaw the ages-old system of caste discrimination it is still widely practised.
Middle class and upper-middle class citizens simply do not see the masses of hungry beggars on the streets of their cities. It is as though they do not exist, and if they're not seen and they don't exist, then there's no problem. Almost 46% of children in India under the age of three suffer from malnutrition, compared with about 35% in sub-Saharan Africa. Compared with only 8% in China, whose rampant economic performance is spurring India's on.
Levels of anemia have risen within India, rather than fallen as the country enriches itself. Some 56% of women and fully 79% of children under three suffer from the disorder, and there is only negligible progress in child immunization levels. In the country of 1.1 people, about half are assailed by poverty, lack of shelter, hunger and inexcusable neglect.
Child malnourishment levels in India surpass that of Ethiopia's children. They're on a par with those of Eritrea and Burkina Faso, several of the poorest countries on earth. UNICEF's representative for child development and nutrition in India says that the country's inaction on this issue will compromise the world's target goals of halving global poverty and hunger by 2015.
This is the country that fondly labels itself the largest democracy in the world. This is also a class-ridden society that will not look its own best interest squarely on, relegating millions of its people to a live of privation and early death. This is a country in love with its own success, where high-tech has enraptured the country's expectations for the future.
It's amazing that a country so rich in tradition, human resources and pride, let alone its immense resources (absent the tradition of the rape of Empire) has its priorities so sadly askew.
This is a country where compassion is strangely absent from its public face. There will be no way forward until there's the will to honour their humanity.
Labels: Human Fallibility
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, February 22, 2007
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