Attaining the Millennium Development Goals in India Reducing Infant Mortality, Child Malnutrition, Gender Disparities and Hunger-Poverty and Increasing School Enrollment and Completion

by Deolalikar, Anil B.

• ISBN13: 9780195675160
• ISBN10: 0195675169
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-05-12
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

India has committed to attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the year 2015. The MDGs are a set of numerical and time-bound targets related to key achievements in human development launched at the Millennium Summit 2000. In the developmental context, they constitute the mostwidely-accepted yardstick of efforts made and policies implemented by governments, donors, and non-governmental organizations. Attaining the MDGs is imperative and especially so for a developing country such as India.Significant among these goals are:BL Halving of the child underweight rate (from its level in 1990)BL Halving the proportion of people who suffer from hungerBL Two-thirds reduction in infant mortality ratesBL Universal primary schoolingBL Complete elimination of gender disparities in schooling opportunitiesHow likely is India to reach these targets? And what will it take--by way of policy interventions--to attain the goals?This report critically analyzes India's performance across five selected MDGs. It uses a variety of data sources to analyze past progress in social indicators, paying particular attention to the heterogeneity of progress across India's many states and sub-units. It establishes correlations betweenthe millennium development outcomes and various policy interventions, and proceeds to project the likely evolution of the millennium development indicators through 2015 based on particular policy scenarios.The report concludes by assessing the prospects of India as a whole--above all its poorer states--attaining the five MDGs by 2015. In doing so, the report highlights the type and scale of interventions that will be needed to attain these goals.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	ix
List of Figures	xi
List of Text Boxes	xvii
Preface	xix
Executive Summary	1	(16)
Introduction	17	(4)
Infant and Child Mortality	21	(30)
Overall Trends	21	(1)
Inter-State Variations	22	(1)
Intra-State Variations	23	(1)
Geographic Concentration of Infant Deaths	24	(1)
Economic Growth, Public Spending on Health, and Infant Mortality Reduction	25	(2)
Government Health Expenditure	27	(4)
Proximate Causes of Infant Mortality	31	(4)
Socio-economic and Policy Correlates of Infant Mortality	35	(4)
Multivariate Analysis of Infant Mortality	39	(2)
Simulations to 2015	41	(3)
Annex II.1: Infant Mortality, Government Health Expenditure, and Per Capita Income across States, 1980-99	44	(7)
Child Malnutrition	51	(16)
Patterns and Trends	51	(2)
Public Spending on Nutrition	53	(2)
Intra-State Variations	55	(1)
Concentration of Child Malnutrition	56	(1)
Proximate Causes of Child Malnutrition	56	(2)
Socio-economic Correlates of Child Malnutrition	58	(2)
Multivariate Analysis of Child Malnutrition	60	(2)
Simulations to 2015	62	(2)
ICDS and Child Malnutrition	64	(3)
Primary Schooling	67	(26)
Overall Trends	67	(1)
Economic Growth, Public Spending, and School Enrollments	68	(4)
Household Survey-Based Enrollment Estimates	72	(2)
Concentration of Out-of-School Children	74	(1)
Primary Completion Rate	75	(1)
Socio-economic Differences in Primary School Attendance and Completion	76	(1)
Infrastructure and Schooling	77	(1)
Teachers and Primary Completion Rates	77	(3)
Multivariate Analysis of Primary Attendance and Completion	80	(2)
Simulations to 2015	82	(11)
Gender Disparity in Schooling	93	(10)
Trends and Patterns	93	(1)
Economic Growth, Public Spending, and Gender Disparity	94	(1)
Household Survey-Based Estimates of Gender Disparity	95	(2)
Socio-economic Differences in Gender Disparity	97	(1)
Infrastructure and Gender Disparity	98	(1)
Multivariate Analysis of Gender Disparity	98	(2)
Simulations	100	(3)
Hunger Poverty	103	(8)
Trends and Patterns	103	(2)
Socio-economic Variations in Calorie Deficiency	105	(1)
Role of Infrastructure	106	(1)
Multivariate Analysis of Calorie Deficiency	107	(1)
Simulations	108	(3)
Conclusion	111	(6)
Annex Tables	117	(18)
References	135