India: A World
Bank Study
By Dr. Rizwana Rahim
Chicago, IL
India is an emerging economic
and technological power with a promising future
clouded by deep and complex problems. In a recent
policy development review, “India: Inclusive
Growth & Service Delivery: Building on India’s
Success” (2006), World Bank takes a closer
look at some of the contradicting features.
The country has been enjoying a booming economy
and there’s some optimism about its future,
thanks to the policy reforms of 1991. However, some
of its major problems have in fact worsened: the
record of public sector delivering government services
has gone from bad to worse, and the gap between
the rich and the poor, towns and villages, etc.,
continues to grow into increasing social tension.
The study suggests that the Indian government has
to radically change and improve the delivery of
services, while sustaining the economic growth and
spreading it across to more people and sectors.
Now, most of the economic gains are lost or squandered
in the maze of these problems.
The age-old problems remain: Nearly 50% of children
under 6 are under-nourished; more than half the
women are illiterate; half the homes have no electricity;
and in towns and cities frequent power outages;
water supply in many places is restricted just to
a few hours per day, and the rich pay for their
water (pumps, bore-wells, storage tanks).
In almost all its functions, the public sector has
severe problems, aggravated by the red tape and
sclerotic bureaucracy. This is not news for those
who watch the Indian TV series, “Office, Office,”
or are familiar with it.
The government is committed to providing health
care for all, but only 21% of its budget is devoted
to it, compared to about 45% in the US – only
5 countries in the world spend less in this area
than India. Even the poor have no recourse but to
seek private health care and pay for it. A nationwide
survey (1999-2003) showed that only 45% of children
are fully immunized against childhood diseases:
this is actually a decrease from 52%. According
to another recent survey, health care delivery services
also suffer from a problem not generally expected
in this area: ‘retail’ bribery, and
its share (27%) was bigger than what’s often
found in other government functions (including police).
As to education, more than half the children in
towns are in private schools. A countrywide survey
of surprise visits to the government schools indicated
that only about half of the teachers were present
and performing their duties. At the end of primary
school, government school children cannot do simple
math.
Public sector works worse in poorer states where
growth is already on decline. This is in contrast
to other states which are better off and have been
growing since the 1999 economic reforms. According
to the World Bank study, parts of India are at par
with Mexico in terms of standard of living, while
other areas seem as poor as some Sub-Saharan African
countries.
Despite a lot of progress in recent decades, some
problems have deep roots in the culture, e.g., legacy
of social stratification and exclusion. Caste system
still defies reform. Prejudice against female children
is getting worse. In more affluent areas of India,
sex-selective abortions are rising which tend to
skew the sex-ratio at birth. Infant mortality is
still a painful reality: a girl born in 1990s was
40% more likely to die within the first 5 years
as compared to a boy. Politics is, as usual, riddled
with wide scale abuses and unmet promises. Electoral
process runs on promises of jobs, contracts and
subsidies. Indian Civil Service remains immune to
reform.
Recent governments, and in particular the Singh
government, have set for themselves a sensible set
of priorities, with clear policies: infrastructure,
health care, education and increased agriculture
production. What seems to fail is the machinery
that is supposed to deliver the policies on them.
The public sector reforms are crucial, because unless
the bureaucracy is held accountable and delivers
the services effectively and efficiently to the
public at large, future for India looks more like
pockets of economic growth surrounded by still un-addressed
basic problems. Such patchy economic growth alone
is not going to trickle down and spread across the
bard into areas that have long been neglected.
The Economist (12 August) also has an article on
this World Bank ['Economics Focus: Light and Shade'].
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