|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| >> Regional Overview >> India Overview | |||||||||||||||||||||
IntroductionUSAID's program in India prior to the imposition of sanctions responded to three key U.S. national interests: (1) economic prosperity achieved through opening markets, especially financial markets; (2) global issues of population growth, infectious diseases, and climate change; and (3) development and democracy concerns of alleviating poverty, reducing malnutrition and improving the status of women.As a result of India's May 1998 nuclear tests, sanctions imposed under the "Glenn Amendment" terminated U.S.G. assistance to opening financial markets and other non-humanitarian instance. Thus, a program to bring India's securities' markets to international standards of transparency and efficiency ended with the job only half-done. Other ongoing and planned non-humanitarian assistance such as private sector and business development, state fiscal policy and infrastructure regulatory reform and e-commerce/information technology development terminated or did not start. India is faced with many daunting constraints. The consolidated fiscal deficit (center, state and public sector undertakings) is one of the highest among large countries. Inadequate infrastructure finance and public sector ownership of most core infrastructure are principal constraints to fast economic growth and poverty reduction. India's high rate of population growth, increasingly concentrated in urban areas, has important implications for the environment and health, especially for the poor. India, with the largest number of HIV infected persons of any country in the world, tuberculosis as the leading and growing cause of death, and polio still not eradicated, is an important contributor to the world's caseload of infectious diseases. India is the sixth largest and second fastest growing producer of greenhouse gases (GHG). India continues to have the largest concentration of poor in the world, more than 350 million. Despite gains in food production, half of its children are malnourished. India's progress in slowing population growth, reducing GHG emissions, slowing the spread of infectious diseases and reducing poverty are critical to successfully addressing U.S. global issues, development and democracy concerns. If sanctions on non-humanitarian assistance are waived or eliminated, USAID will resume the financial markets program and explore starting activities in fiscal policy reform, infrastructure and e-commerce/information technology. The potential for contributing to the opening up of the Indian economy and contributing to U.S. trade and investment opportunities through successful programs in these areas is enormous. The Development ChallengeIndia's ability to achieve sustainable growth and reduce poverty depends greatly on its ability to stabilize population growth. India already has a population of one billion; it will surpass China's by 2040. A major contributing factor to India's rapid population growth is the lack of access to reproductive health services. Hence, the USAID program to stabilize population growth focuses on improving the quality of, and access to, family planning services in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state with 166 million people.Malnutrition in more than 50% of India's children is reflected by the death of one of every nine children before reaching age five. India has 25% of the world's child deaths. USAID integrates Public Law (P.L.) 480 Title II food with development assistance resources in activities that provide supplementary feeding and basic health services to mothers and children. USAID is working with Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to feed and deliver health services daily to seven million of India's poorest people. The overall impact of the unique food aid driven child survival program has been to: (a) increase the percentage of children under two years receiving supplemental food; (b) improve access to immunization in program areas; and (c) increase access to iron-folate supplements by pregnant women. Food assistance also helps USAID respond rapidly to natural disasters. As a result of the recent super-cyclone that hit Orissa, over 10,000 died and about 16.3 million persons were affected. USAID, through its private voluntary organization (PVO) partners CARE and CRS, was the first agency to provide assistance. To date, $3.3 million in materials and $4.1 million in food have been provided to about 1.2 million cyclone victims. India's commitment to accelerated economic growth, coupled with its massive population, has serious implications for the environment. India's three largest metropolitan cities rank among the 10 worst polluted in the world. Air pollution and inadequate access to clean water and sanitation add to the incidence of chronic respiratory diseases and other communicable illnesses, especially among the urban poor. The growing demand for power, fueled largely by high-ash coal, makes India a major and increasingly significant contributor, to global warming. USAID assists the Indian power sector to adopt energy-efficient technology for power generation and distribution that will result in less GHG emissions. A USAID-funded pilot activity has already helped the National Thermal Power Corporation, which generates over 25% of India's thermal power, to cut carbon dioxide emissions by nearly one million tons annually, with a potential to mitigate another two million tons per annum. USAID assists India's cities to reduce the debilitating impacts on health of the urban poor from urban pollution by introducing new approaches to urban environmental planning and urban water supply and sanitation systems. Technical and capital assistance already helped create a $250 million build-operate-transfer water supply and sewerage project in the city of Tiruppur that will contribute to improving the health of the city's poor. USAID assistance also enables the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), a successful micro-finance institution in Ahmedabad, to explore community-based partnerships for environmental infrastructure improvements in urban slums. India is one of the world's epicenters for HIV/AIDS and has more HIV infected people (3.5 million people) than any other country. USAID, through interventions in Tamil Nadu, has contributed to a measurable increase in condom use by high-risk groups. A major expansion of the HIV/AIDS initiative to the state of Maharashtra, which has the largest number of HIV/AIDS positive people, was launched in FY 1999. In addition to the HIV/AIDS prevention program, USAID activities encompass tuberculosis treatment, anti-microbial resistance, eradication of polio and other vaccine preventable diseases, and improved surveillance of infectious diseases. The low status of women is tellingly reflected in India's 1991 census data, which shows a sex ratio of 927 females per 1,000 males and a female literacy rate of 39% versus 64% for males. Data from 1994 shows 43% of eligible girls are enrolled in primary school compared to 62% of boys. USAID's programs seek to increase women's decision-making power by supporting indigenous organizations in the areas of microfinance for women, girl's education through advocacy and providing teachers with the tools to increase enrollment and retention of girls and combating violence against women. Other DonorsSeven multilateral and 13 bilateral donors provide assistance to India. The United States is the sixth largest donor after the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Union, Japan and the United Kingdom. USAID collaborates closely with other donors on reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, population, climate change, urban environmental infrastructure and women's empowerment.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||
|
