Nutrition, sanitation smudge India's HDI climb

*India's Human Development Index (HDI) showed an impressive gain of 21%
between 1999-2000 and 2007-08 with the Muslims and the backwards catching up
with others on socio-economic indicators even though the gap was still very
big.

A Planning Commission report released a day before Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh is meeting of chief ministers to decide on plan approach for next five
years (12th plan) says the Muslims and Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled
Tribes (ST) were converging on health and education outcomes at a faster
rate with the national average, especially during last six years.*

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*The report also said that Gujarat, described as epitome for development by
BJP, had highest incidence of malnutrition among Muslim, SC and ST women and
was ranked 13 out of 17 states on hunger index, below much poorer Orissa,
Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam.

"Inspite of high economic growth Gujarat fares the worst in terms of overall
hunger index among high per capita income states," said Santosh Mehrotra,
Director-General of the plan panel's Institute of Applied Manpower Research.

The report findings had panel's deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia
beaming who said it presents a "nice picture" and said inclusiveness was
multi-dimensional and the report clearly shows how "growth has helped to
reduce poverty".

Mehrotra agreed but his alarm was that the number of poor has come down by
just 19 million since 1973-74 --- when poverty was measured for the first
time in India --- to be around 302 million in 2004-05.

The report said poverty among SC and ST remain much higher than the national
average, an area of concern for policy makers. On the brighter note, the
report said these backward sections, considered lowest on ten socio-economic
indicators such as monthly spending, infant and maternal mortality rate and
fertility rate, were converging with the national average on six of these
indicators.

"Fertility rate among Muslim women had witnessed maximum dip among different
social groups and higher share of Muslim infants compared to national
average lived beyond their first birth day," the report having special focus
on Muslims among different religious groups said.

Over 55 % of Muslims, SC and STs live in poorest HDI score states --- Bihar,
Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh
and West Bengal --- who have gained the most from "social inclusion through
economic growth".

"The average growth of most of these states has been above the national GDP
growth rate suggesting convergence over time in terms of economic growth,"
the report said. Maximum progress these states have made is enrollment of
children in schools and increase in per capita income.

Child malnutrition, termed as a "puzzle" by Rural Development minister
Jairam Ramesh, was an exception to this social inclusion phenomenon with
children in 17 of 35 Indian states having higher malnourishment rate than in
Sub-Saharan Africa.*

*
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/India-high-on-education--HDI-report/863723/
*

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