Public Facilities | Development

The problem does not end with Infant Mortality Rate. The last column What does this table show? The first column of the table shows that in Kerala, out of 1000 children born alive 11 died before completing one year of age but in Punjab the proportion of children dying within one year of birth is 49, which is nearly five times more. On the other hand, the per capita income of Punjab is much more than shows that more that half of the children in Bihar do not even get to go to school. This means that if you went to school in Bihar more than half of your class would be missing. Those who could have been in school are not there! If this had happened to you, you would not be able to read what you are reading now. Kerala as shown in Table 1.3. Just think of how dear you are to your parents, think of how every one is so happy when a child is born. Now, try to think of parents whose children die before they even celebrate their first birthday. How painful it must be to these parents? Next, note the year to which this data pertains. It is 2003. So we are not talking of old times; it is 56 years after independence when our metro towns are full of high-rise buildings and shopping malls! Most babies do not get basic health care PUBLIC FACILITIES Actually for many of the important things in life the best way, also the cheapest way, is to provide these goods and services collectively. Just think - will it be cheaper to have collective security for the whole locality or for each house to have its own security man? What if no one, other than you, How is it that the average person in Punjab has more income than the average person in Kerala but lags behind in these crucial areas? The money in your pocket cannot buy all the goods and services that you may need to live well. So, income by itself is not a completely adequate indicator of material goods and services that citizens are able to use. For example, normally, your money cannot buy you a pollution-free environment or ensure that you get unadulterated medicines, unless you can afford to shift to a community that already has all these things. Money may also not be able to protect you from infectious diseases, unless the whole of your community takes preventive steps. reason is in your village or locality is interested in studying? Would you be able to study? Not unless your parents could afford to send you to some private school elsewhere. So you are actually able to study because many other children also want to study and because many people believe that the government should open schools and provide other facilities so that all children have a chance to study. Even now, in many areas, children, particularly girls, are not able to achieve secondary level schooling because government/society has not provided adequate facilities. Kerala has a low Infant Mortality Rate because it has adequate PDS shop, i.e. ration shop, does not function properly in such places, the people there are able to get the problem rectified. nutritional status of people of such states is certainly likely to be better. provision of basic health and educational facilities. Similarly, in some states, the Public Distribution Health and System (PDS) functions well. If some Isn't it surprising that a small country in our neighbourhood, Sri Lanka, is much ahead of India in every respect and a big country like ours added to the Human Development Report but, by pre-fixing Human to Development, it has made it very clear that what is important in has such a low rank in the world? Table 1.6 also shows that though Nepal has half the per capita income of India, yet it is not far behind India in life expectancy and literacy levels. development is what is happening to citizens of a country. It is people, their health, their well being, that is most important. Many improvements have been suggested in calculating HDI and many new components have been Do you think there are certain other aspects that should be considered in measuring human development?