Maternal, child health are investment priorities

Quality of education in government schools has to be improved

Understanding that relatively low-cost maternal and early-life health and nutrition programmes offer very high returns, investing in these two areas could become a top policy priority, said the Economic Survey.

“One can build clinics in villages or transfer money to pregnant mothers or build latrines but how does one bring out the right usage of all this physical capital is the next task in front of the government,” it stated.

The Survey considered open defecation as one of the topmost health care problems, causing disease among the new-borns. The practice, it said, was much more common in India than in other poor countries.

“Evidence from a variety of sources (for open defecation) show that the next challenge in rural India is behavioural,” it said.

Historically, open defecation in India has declined by about one percentage point a year. To eliminate this by 2030 as is the aim, this historical rate of decline has to triple, the Survey observed.

Praising the National Food Security Act of 2013, which legislated a universal cash entitlement for pregnant women of at least Rs 6,000, the Survey asserted this programme could significantly help improve nutrition during pregnancy.

“If pregnant women receive cash payments from the government and if families convert these into more and higher-quality food, and more rest for pregnant women, maternity entitlements will improve infants’ birth weights,” it said.

Apart from mother and child health, the Survey expresses the need to improve the quality of education in government schools, to arrest and reverse the decline in enrolment. Also, a rise in the proportion of qualified teachers.
HEALTH CHECK

• Open defecation is one of the top health care problems, causing disease among newborns
   
• The practice is more common in India than in other poor countries
   
• Historically, open defecation in India has declined by about one percentage point a year
   
• To eliminate this by 2030, this rate of decline has to triple