India may possibly be the world's fastest growing "free market" economy, but it's no competition to its neighbors with regards to the social wellness of her people.
A comparison of the neighboring countries shows that besides Pakistan, all others like Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and China are far better off in terms of several social welfare indicators.
Even as India's certain growth story creates headlines, it is the second worst performing nation in South Asia with regards to female literacy.
At 74%, India is ranked just more than Pakistan exactly where 61% of the women are educated. Even Bangladesh fares better.
Among South Asian countries India is most likely the worst place to be born in, as the chances of survival till the age of five are significantly weaker than the chances in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and China. Yet again, we are much better off than Pakistan, albeit slightly.
The revelation just isn't as well surprising as soon as 28% of young children in India are born underweight as against 3% in China, 17 per cent in Sri Lanka, 21 per cent in Nepal and 22 per cent in Bangladesh.
This embarrassing performance has arrived towards the fore of the release of a UNICEF report within the Capital on Wednesday.
The discovery highlights the state of poor children growing up in cities. Statistics on child survival, development and protection paint a extremely sorry state of India in comparison to its neighbors as well.
Not everybody in India, however, is unfamiliar with this scenario.
The Human Development Report 2011 released by the Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR) (an autonomous body under the Planning Commission) last year had produced some shocking revelations on a levels of food insecurity, malnutrition and also the dismal wellness infrastructure of the country.
In January, the Prime Minister referred to as malnourishment in between kids a "national shame" while releasing a report on hunger and malnutrition.
"It's a shame that in some states of our nation the levels of hunger & malnutrition are worse than some sub-Saharan countries. Much requirements to done in terms of social welfare of our young children and women," Shantha Sinha, head of the National Commission for protection of Child Rights, who was provided at the launch from the report said.
URBAN POOR NEGLECTED
Showing that the cities in India have failed to nurture its poor children, the UNICEF report shatters the well-known perception that the urban poor are far better off than their counterparts in rural areas.
Infant mortality rate for ones underprivileged in cities (55 deaths for each 1,000 live births) just isn't too numerous within the scenario in rural India (62 deaths for every 1,000 live births).
Anaemia is nearly both equally common in urban (71%) and rural (72%) children.
But one of the most embarrassing statistic is on an underweight kids in urban areas. 47% of urban poor youngsters are born underweight as against 46% in rural India. "Our report shows that growing up poor inside a city is a lot tougher than it's inside a village," K. D. Maiti, planning monitoring & evaluation specialist with Unicef, India said.
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