The reluctant state: lacunae in current child health and nutrition policies and programmes in India

Prasad, V. and Sinha, Dipa (2015) The reluctant state: lacunae in current child health and nutrition policies and programmes in India. [Publications (Pre-joining)]

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Abstract

Child health and nutrition remains a matter of grave concern in India despite significant gains in terms of economic development in the recent past, and some would argue, even as a ‘result’of the developmental paradigm that has resulted in a highly skewed economic growth benefiting mostly a particular, tiny section of the population. India has experienced consistently high economic growth in the last three decades. In the last decade it has been the second fastest growing economy, after China. However, this growth has been accompanied with increasing inequality and poor human development improvements (Ghosh and Chandrashekhar 2007, Himanshu 2007, Bonnerjee and Koehler 2010, Patnaik 2011, Chandrashekhar and Ghosh 2011). The average annual reduction in Under Five Mortality Rates (U5MRs) and Infant Mortality Rates (IMRs) for India are 3.4 per cent (from 123 to 74 children per 1000 live births) and 2.2 per cent (from 84 to 56 infants per 1000 live births) respectively, during 1990–2005, putting India among countries with the lowest rates of decline during this period (Gupta and Trivedi 2008). IMR in India is high even compared to a much poorer country such as Bangladesh. IMR in India for the year 2011 was 47 per 1000 live births, in Bangladesh it was 37 per 1000 live births while the per capita income of India is twice as much as in Bangladesh. India ranks the highest amongst the world’s 16 poorest countries (outside of sub-Saharan Africa) in terms of per capita income (2011) but its rank in terms of IMR and U5MR is 10. The coverage of children with the measles vaccine in India is lower than 10 other countries in this list (Drèze and Sen 2013).

Item Type:	Publications (Pre-joining)
Authors:	Prasad, V. and Sinha, Dipa
Document Language:	Language English
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Nutrition, child health
Subjects:	Social sciences Social sciences > Social problems & services Social sciences > Social problems & services > Public health
Divisions:	Azim Premji University - Bengaluru > University Publications > Centre for the Study of the Indian Economy (CSIE)
Full Text Status:	Public
Related URLs:	https://www.researchgate.net/publication...
URI:	http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/6670
Publisher URL:	https://india.oup.com/product/india-social-develop...

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