Our pride and shame

Updated on: Sunday, August 08, 2010

For a country asserting its growing clout on the world stage, the inauguration of Terminal 3 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport was a prime moment for some chest thumping speeches. Calling the terminal a “window to India” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: “The new terminal signals the arrival of a new India, committed to joining the ranks of modern, industrialised nations.”

Manmohan Singh is right in that the airport will indeed give a visitor the first impression of the country he is about to visit. Going by media reports, the new airport is all set to dazzle with a range of the state-of-the art facilities.

Other realities

But what about after that first impression? Visitors leaving the swank terminal will enter a city that epitomises a reality that is true for much of India. The city is a study of contrasts. On the one hand, Delhi is pumping in thousands of crores of rupees to give the city a makeover for the Commonwealth Games. In three months, you can reach the airport flat in 20 minutes if you take the metro from South Delhi. Everywhere you look is a beehive of construction activity. But look closely and you will catch a glimpse of a truer reality of India: children as young as 10 or 11 working on the sites, half of them underweight and malnourished. Welcome to the Millennium City. Hundreds of thousands of children in the capital are still out of school despite a Constitutionally guaranteed right, malnutrition among children below five is worse than in sub-Saharan Africa, child labour is rampant in dhabhas and on construction sites and, worse, in middle-class homes.

No one disputes the fact that growth needs to happen for a country's well-being. And investments in the physical infrastructure are critical to accelerating economic growth. A country's well-being is also measured by certain socio-economic indicators. Literacy is one such indicator. Sixty three years after Independence, a Right to Education Act came into force earlier this year, guaranteeing compulsory elementary education to all children between the ages of six and 14. Four months later, it's now stalled for want of funds. On the other hand, Terminal 3 is being hailed as an achievement brought to fruition in just 37 months. The determination to complete the airport in record time is remarkable and shows that political will can make change possible. Any irritants like lack of funds will not be allowed to delay showcasing national pride. But the same political will is woefully missing when it comes to investing in the future generation and the future of this country. True, ensuring that every child in this country completes elementary education will require huge investments in schools, teachers and infrastructure and, unlike Terminal 3, it is not a project with a finish date but sustained investments need to be made. However, it is the apathy and almost cavalier attitude to making universal elementary education a reality that is the difference.

Rampant malnutrition

Take another example. Despite the Prime Minister crying hoarse that malnutrition is a matter of national shame, in the nation's capital alone, 42.2 per cent of children under the age of five are stunted and a shocking 26.1 per cent are underweight. The epidemic of malnutrition is quietly wiping out generations of our children and it is an emergency that needs to be tackled on a war footing. But how many times, for instance, has the Prime Minister's Council on Nutrition met since being formed two years ago? If holding the Commonwealth Games is a question of national pride and the issue of malnutrition among children is a national shame, how are we reacting to the two? There is a great sense of here and now in preparing Delhi for October but the same sense of urgency is palpably missing in tackling child malnutrition. Surely, there is a disconnect here.

India cannot shine only in her swanky airports and beautiful stadia. How can this idea of shiny India co-exist with the reality of nearly two million children under five dying every year due to easily treatable and preventable diseases? How can shiny India live with the reality of nearly 40 million children under 14 working in hazardous forms of child labour? Countries that have undergone rapid economic development over the last 100 years have made massive investments in education. This, combined with legal and political reform, has played a big role in eliminating child labour for instance.

Challenge ahead

With accelerating economic growth rates, the challenge that India faces is making growth more inclusive, ensuring that everyone, especially the most disadvantaged and marginalised groups benefit from this economic growth. If India's growth story does not include a script that ensures that children grow up healthy, educated and lead a life of dignity, then it is incomplete and any sense of achievement is pyrrhic. We have good policies and schemes in place. The time has come to implement these and more importantly, monitor their implementation. We owe it to the future of our country, our children, that we invest in their well being.

Our pride and shame

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