Rising from ashes, Bihar is India's new phoenix. Recently it impressed the World Bank resulting in an aid worth several hundred crores for development of the state. And it has a number of lessons for neighbouring UP. In 2002-03, when census data was notified, UP fared better than Bihar. But, now the tortoise (read Bihar) has metamorphosed to hare, leaving UP behind. Consider figures from the National Rural Health Mission. Number...
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Dismal: State of the World's Children 2011
A good marker of a country’s progress is the environment in which its children grow up. Prevalence of malnutrition, hunger, unhygienic surroundings and forced child labour cost a country dearly in terms of its real growth. The State of the World's Children 2011 report shows how little is being invested in the future citizens of our world. The theme of this year’s report is “Adolescence: An Age of Opportunity” and...
More »Kind to cash by Richard Mahapatra
The government has a plan to reach welfare to the poor without wasting money. It wants to put hard cash in their hands instead of spending on welfare programmes. To begin with, it wants to end the public distribution system of food grain and give money directly to the people. Its logic: the new system of cash transfer will plug leakages and save an enormous amount of money. But is it...
More »Why did Vypari Bai die? by Kalpana Sharma
Women in rural India continue to die because of indifference and neglect by healthcare authorities... This is a public health warning. Do not express concern for the state of healthcare in this country. Do not express anger that women die because they are either denied care or help is delayed when they have complicated pregnancies. Do not demand that healthcare is an entitlement that the poor have a right to demand...
More »90,000 babies die in Bihar in first month of birth by Arun Kumar
About 90,000 children die every year in Bihar within the first month of their birth, according to state principal secretary, health, C K Mishra. Inaugurating the first annual convention of National Neonatology Forum (NNF), Bihar chapter, on Sunday, Mishra said out of about 29 lakh children born every year in Bihar, 1.60 lakh die before completing one year of life. Of these, about two-thirds or about 90,000 die within the first...
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