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A mixed report
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ANITA JOSHUA talks to Maria Calivis, UNICEF Country Director, on India's progress vis-à-vis its children.
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BE it the compulsions of the office she holds or a genuine appreciation of the magnitude of the challenges facing a country that is home to the world's largest population of children, the UNICEF Country Director, Maria Calivis, is more charitable in her comments on India's progress vis-à-vis children than most Indians.
Talking to The Hindu in New Delhi, Ms. Calivis insisted that India's progress report on the commitments made at the 1990 World Summit for Children was as mixed as the "World Report Card".
"The `World Report Card' shows some progress on a number of the `measurable goals' that countries set for themselves in 1990, but the world has fallen short of fulfilling the commitment it made to children 12 years ago. India, too, has a `mixed report card' to show." But, she is quick to add, "It is important to highlight the remarkable achievements; if only to show that progress is possible and that resolutions/commitments are more than just pieces of paper."
Getting India-specific, Ms. Calivis reels off the positives: Increase in access to education and drinking water; increase in female literacy rate; drop in the number of polio cases; ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the ongoing effort to make the Right to Elementary Education a Fundamental Right.
"Though the India Report is very much in line with the `World Report Card', challenges remain with the Infant Mortality Rate stagnating at 70 per 1,000 life births, and persistent maternal mortality and malnutrition. We have seen some incremental progress, but these are problem areas that need to be addressed."
Add to this the use of medical technology to sustain the practice of female foeticide, though she is rather impressed by the manner in which the Government has stepped in to punish those misusing the sex diagnostic techniques, child labour and the spreading menace of HIV/AIDS, which can quickly reverse gains made over the years. Given the fact that India had taken some measures to address the needs of its fast growing population of children much before the 1990 summit, the UNICEF Country Representative is convinced of India's commitment to the cause.
Preferring not to comment on implementation, the bane of most developmental programmes in India, she, in turn, emphasises the sheer size of India to explain the snail's pace of development here. "Do not forget that India has 380 million children in the under-18 category; that's a population of continental proportions. And, children are just one section of the population making demands on the national budget."
Appreciative though she is of the budgetary allocation for children in this financial year — particularly the enhanced share for the Nutrition Mission and the monetary component for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) — what is worrying Ms. Calivis these days is the fiscal deficit in some States. "The impact of fiscal deficit on social programmes is a bit worrying." Echoing the Indian Government's apprehensions of the fiscal deficit slowing progress in the social sector — particularly the SSA mission for universalising elementary education by 2010 as States have to pick up part of the bill — the UNICEF India head is, however, convinced that the goals India has set for itself through the Abhiyan are "do-able". "It would be a spectacular legacy if the goals are met."
Also, she is impressed with the manner in which India has strengthened opportunities for local development through the Panchayat Raj system. What pleases her particularly is the involvement of women in local self-government. "The panchayats are an important platform for action, and the presence of women can accelerate progress for children." All this — the sheer size of the country and its population, the range of challenges the country faces, and the steps taken — makes "India's voice important at the Special Session" which had to be rescheduled following the terrorist strikes in New York and Washington.
Apart from getting countries together to review the progress made in the decade after the 1990 summit, the Special Session is also aimed at "moving children to the centre of every government's agenda" because as the U.N. Secretary General's report `We the Children: Meeting the Promises of the World Summit for Children' states:
"Clearly, the world's children have not had the promised `first call' on resources."
The U.N. Special Session on Children was held in New York from May 8 to 10.
India-specific statistics
The group of children in the last decade of the 20th Century was the largest generation the world has ever known.
Of every 100 children born in the world today: 55 would be born in Asia; 19 of them in India. Of every 100 children born in India today, the births of 63 will not be registered, 25 will not be immunised against any disease, 16 will have no access to clean drinking water, 47 will suffer from malnutrition in the first three years of life, 26 will be born with birth weight less than 2,500 gm and 15 will never go to school. Of every 100 who begin first grade, only 52 will reach the fifth grade.
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