Palms for Life Fund - Priority Countries

INDIA

Population: 1,087 million
Gross National Income per capita: US$620
Under 5 mortality rate (per thousand): 85
Infant mortality rate (per thousand): 62
Maternal mortality rate (per 100,000): 540 (136,000 mothers/2004 )
Adult literacy rate: 61
Male 73
Female 48
Net primary school enrollment/attendance rate: 77

India

India has had an impressive economic growth in the last five years of over 5 percent a year with an overall impressive reduction in poverty by 10 percentage points. However, the country is marked by a "two Indias" phenomenon of growing inequality whereby the northern populous states have a growth rate of only 2 percent, and 35 percent of the population is poor, and in the better off southern states, poverty affects only 18 percent of the population. The increased poverty gap is a serious brake on poverty reduction.

In addition, with a population of over 1.2 billion, India's natural resources are in increasing demand. Yet, these resources' are facing severe threats to their capacity and sustainability as the effects of climate change are manifesting throughout the country. In India's northern and eastern states, especially, the intensification of floods, drought and cyclones testifies to the expressions of climate change that are disparately impacting India's most vulnerable population of small and marginal farmers.

Nearly 50 percent of the world's hungry live in India which has also the world's largest number of poor people per country with an estimated 350-400 million people living below the poverty line, 75 per cent of them in the rural areas.

About 350 million people are considered food-insecure, consuming less than 80 percent of minimum energy requirements.

Indicators about women also confirm the “two Indias” phenomenon. For instance, India has the world’s largest number of professionally qualified women and more working women than any other country in the world. On an average however, women in India are socially, politically and economically weaker than men.

Anemia in pregnant women causes 20 percent of infant mortality. More than half of the children under five are moderately or severely malnourished, or suffer from stunting.

While female literacy is 48 percent nationally, in poor areas it can go as low as 16 percent; 90 million children are out of school and a significant proportion of these are engaged in child labor.

57 percent of the girls are married before the age of 18. Undernourished girls who are married young give birth to low-birth-weight babies, thus perpetuating the problem of malnutrition and poverty.

According to UNAIDS/WHO, at the end of 2005, about 5,700,000 adults and children were living with HIV/AIDS and between 270,000 and 680,000 Indians died of AIDS in 2005. The incidence of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis is higher among women than among men.

Palms for Life Fund will focus its investment in building sustainable water and sanitation systems, educating mothers about improved nutrition and hygiene practices in order to reduce infant and maternal mortality, in girls' education and women literacy in order to reduce the gender gap, and in HIV/AIDS prevention.

India News Sources

Sources:
Economic Growth in South Asia: Promising, Un-equalizing,…. Sustainable?, South Asia Region, World Bank, June 2006.
The State of the World’s Children 2006, UNICEF
India Country Program 2003-2007, World Food Programme
UNAIDS/WHO 2006 report on the global AIDS epidemic

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