Patralekha Chatterjee: India @ 64: The good news

As India celebrates the 64th anniversary of its independence from Britain, we have much to be thankful for.

The drip-drip of corruption scandals and civil-society mutinies notwithstanding, we can count our blessings, starting with a few not-so-obvious ones. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is under attack on various fronts.

But no one can accuse him of having a colourful past or of being a member of any snobby Oxford University ‘dining’ clique  with a reputation for boisterous behaviour as is being suggested of British premier David Cameron and London mayor Boris Johnson.

Our foreign minister commands attention because of the words he utters, even if some of them display a streak of absent-mindedness, unlike his counterpart in neighbouring Pakistan, who has been hitting the headlines mostly for her handbag.

We should also pat ourselves on our backs that though our leaders may be found wanting in many ways, none is likely to be racing on horseback across the steppes of Mongolia, 715 miles from the nearest airport, in times of a national crisis, as is reported to be the case with Northern Ireland secretary Owen Paterson.

As for corruption and looting, we now know they are global phenomena, like climate change. We can talk about them, write about them, but to expect India alone to do something about it would surely demonstrate a bias against emerging economies.
Independent India on its 64th birthday is a study in chiaroscuro, characterised by strong contrasts between light and darkness.

The dominant narrative dwells on a familiar paradox: the ‘New India’ — the economic powerhouse bursting at the seams with entrepreneurial energy, juxtaposed against the Old India with festering sores of poverty, illiteracy, ill health and malnutrition.

These two Indias typically ignore each other. There is, however, a third way of telling the story in which the fate of the two Indias is irrevocably intertwined. The message here is obvious, but often overlooked.

Healthy children do better in school, have more choices and are more likely to realise their potential. Conversely, children who don’t get proper food or safe drinking water or grow up in unhygienic conditions are more likely to have their mental development affected, fall ill, lag behind in studies and possibly drop out. The vicious cycle continues. To this, add an increasing burden of non-communicable disease or life-style diseases today.

Last week, Dr Thomas Frieden, a  distinguished public health advocate and currently the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reminded those who had turned up at a Delhi hotel to listen to him, of these all-too-obvious linkages.

Frieden made two key points that bear repeating as we look ahead to the future: first, public health is integral to economic growth and national progress; second, the government has a critical role to play in public healthcare, and a strong public sector is necessary, supported by the private sector.

Frieden is a not a first -time visitor to this country. He has worked across the world, including in India for several years, assisting the national tuberculosis control efforts. The view of an outsider who has seen India from the inside track is useful.

India, he said, has made much progress in the last 10 years on multiple fronts in healthcare — tuberculosis, tobacco control, polio, HIV and AIDS. But the key issue is something else — India’s progress has to be gauged not only in relation to its past but also to its potential. If we want to sustain the economic progress we so value, we will have to put in more efforts towards making people healthier. This means, as Frieden put it, “brutal honesty about success, failure, progress.”

Amid all the bad news, there are signs that some states are getting their priorities right. Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have already reached the Millennium Development Goal target of maternal mortality ratio of less than 106 per 100,000 live births by 2015.

Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat and Haryana are close. Another example: Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Daman & Diu, Goa, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Manipur, Nagaland, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu have slashed their infant mortality rate to less than 30 per 1,000 live births. Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Sikkim, Tripura and West Bengal are almost there.

That is real good news on the birthday of independent India. Now if only all states competed as intensely to save mothers and children as they do to attract foreign investment.

Patralekha Chatterjee is a Delhi-based writer and can be reached at patralekha.chatterjee@gmail.com