Gorakhpur: The devastating picture of an apathetic India

India, behind its colorful veil of spirituality, scenic beauty and serene charm, has a darker shade of sadness. It pathetically fails to protect its future, the children.

The data from National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) paints a rather disappointing picture with only a few states such as Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and New Delhi showing a positive deviation from the national average. While the national average of Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) stands at 40 (per 1000 live births), Madhya Pradesh and Assam fails to save 54  lives as of 2013. Kerala with its renowned, now declining, Kerala model of health care has an infant mortality rate of 12.

This aforementioned numbers proves that with political will power, governance and personal health awareness we surely can save more lives every year. Even though we cite Kerala as an exception in this scenario there are states such as Punjab making good progress in this regard.


These are the figures of Punjab from 2008 to 2013. As you can evidently see, saving lives of children is not an impossible task.

So what is happening in places such as Assam, Madhya Pradesh or Uttar Pradesh?I would say political apathy coupled with lack of awareness lead to such grave situations. When government priorities align with myopic political agendas (1, 2 & 3) which in turn are motivated by communal ideologies, these happen.

Sadly, more such news is coming from UP. I admit that there is no quick fix for this issue. However, the political parties who has been in power for  many years should've done a better job. I would not be surprised if fingers point at the current CM who has been the MLA of Gorakhpur for the last 18 years .

With CGST, SGST, Income tax and tax on investments, the least we can ensure is basic healthcare and infrastructure are in place. 

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