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India
Please note: All linked documents are in PDF format
| Objective |
SO Number |
FY 2004 |
FY 2005 |
FY 2006 |
| Economic Growth | 386-013 |
9,839 |
12,100 |
13,600 |
| Improved Health and Reduced Fertility | 386-014 |
49,800 |
51,022 |
48,822 |
| Disaster Management Support | 386-015 |
4,000 |
3,700 |
4,000 |
| Environmental Protection | 386-016 |
11,050 |
13,500 |
16,800 |
| Education/Equity | 386-017 |
11,112 |
9,580 |
9,200 |
|
Total (in thousands of dollars) |
85,801 |
89,902 |
92,422 |
Excludes P.L. 480. See Program Annex.
|
The Development Challenge: India is home to 1.1 billion people, roughly one-sixth of the world's population, and has the world's 12th largest economy. Approximately 81% of India's people are Hindu, but India also has the world's third largest Muslim population (estimated at 145 million). The United States and India, the two largest democracies in the world, share many values and strategic interests. The nations are dramatically and positively transforming their relationship. India is intensifying its economic and social policy reforms to decrease poverty and increase social equity. It is committed to halving poverty rates by the year 2020. India is both a key U.S. partner in the war on terrorism and an anchor for security and economic growth in strategically important South Asia.
India's strong democratic traditions and financial stability are forces of equilibrium in a volatile region. However, economic development in India is uneven and varies by region and social factors. India's consolidated fiscal deficit (national, state, and public sector undertakings), at 10% of gross domestic product, is one of the highest among large countries. Inadequate infrastructure and public sector ownership of most core infrastructure are principal constraints to more rapid economic growth and poverty reduction. Following the formation of the new Congress Party-led government in May 2004, India began an historic political transition. The new government has pledged to focus heavily on economic reform and development.
Low human capacity levels and poor health are central to India's development challenges. More than 300 million Indians live in abject poverty -- more than all the poor in Africa and Latin America combined -- resulting in India having the world's largest concentration of desperately poor people. A child is born every two seconds in India. At the current population growth rate, India will overtake China as the world's most populous country by 2050. India has over 5.1 million people infected by HIV, second only to South Africa. More than half of the country's children are malnourished. Thirty percent of the world's births occur in India, resulting in 20% of the world's maternal deaths and 20% of the world's child deaths. Forty-two of every 1,000 girl children (compared to 29 boy children) die before reaching the age of five. More than two million Indian children die every year from preventable or curable diseases. India accounts for one-third of the global burden of tuberculosis, which kills over 1,000 people a day. India is one of the world's last countries where concentrations of polio still remain.
Fewer than half of Indian women are literate. Despite extensive constitutional and statutory safeguards, large sections of the Indian polity remain disadvantaged in their quest for equitable treatment under the judicial system. Human rights abuses are often generated by intense social tensions that disproportionately touch women, the poor, religious minorities, and other disadvantaged groups. Discrimination against women remains entrenched in India. Deep-rooted cultural beliefs and traditional practices deprive women of education, health care, and nutrition. Violence against women is widespread, and includes girl child feticide/infanticide, child abuse, and rapes. India is a significant source and transit country for trafficked women and children. Victims of trafficking in India include economically vulnerable women and children from impoverished households in rural areas and urban slums, separated or widowed women, ethnic minorities, refugees and illegal migrants, and children from disrupted families.
Compounding these serious problems in health and education is India's lack of financial viability in the power sector. Only one-third of households have electricity, and Indians have access to 30 times less water than individuals in the United States. Significant power shortages plague the country due to unsustainable subsidization policies, a lack of cost-recovery by utilities, and the subsequent inability of utilities to provide reliable, high quality power. Widespread financial insolvency of the utilities, and the state governments that are forced to bail them out, significantly contribute to increasing levels of state fiscal deficits. The current losses in the Indian power sector amount to more than $7 billion per year and the figure is growing at 15% to 20% every year.
India is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. The Orissa cyclone (1999) and the Gujarat earthquake (2001) killed more than 22,000 people and damaged more than three million houses. About 70% of crop land is vulnerable to drought and about 55% of land area is prone to earthquakes. An estimated 40 million hectares of land (nearly the size of California) are susceptible to floods. Weather-related events cause the bulk of destruction and loss to life in India. The December 2004 Asian Tsunami underlines the importance of ongoing investments in disaster management.
The USAID program directly addresses the challenges described above and advances four U.S. national interests: (1) economic prosperity achieved through opening markets; (2) global issues of population growth, infectious diseases, and climate change; (3) development and democracy concerns of alleviating poverty, reducing malnutrition, and improving the status of women; and (4) humanitarian response by saving lives and reducing suffering associated with disasters.
The USAID Program: USAID is requesting FY 2005 and FY 2006 funds for five objectives that concentrate on: (1) Economic Growth - targeting increased transparency and efficiency in the mobilization and allocation of resources; (2) Health - targeting improved overall health with a greater integration of food assistance, and reduced fertility; (3) Disaster Management Support - targeting reduced vulnerability to disasters for marginalized people; (4) Environmental Protection - targeting improved access to clean energy and water; the reduction of public subsidies through improved cost recovery; and promoting more efficient technology and management; and (5) Education/Equity - targeting improved access to elementary education, justice, and other social and economic services for vulnerable groups, especially women and children.
Other Program Elements: In addition to USAID/India's bilateral programs, USAID's South Asia Regional Initiative/Energy (SARI/Energy) program promotes regional peace and prosperity by encouraging cooperation in energy development and eventual trade among South Asian countries. The SARI/Equity program promotes collaborative regional efforts to address inequity as it affects women and children. It funds efforts to combat cross border human trafficking and abusive child labor practices and to improve women's microfinance services. The regional United States-Asia Environmental Partnership promotes the adoption of clean and efficient technologies, policies, and practices to support the positive relationship between economic growth and environmental protection in India. USAID also manages a project promoting community management of forests which have been continuously degraded due to industrial logging pressure, agricultural expansion, mining operations, and a lack of financial, technical, and political support.
The Bureau for Global Health funds an activity in India to reduce fertility through voluntary practices. USAID's Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance has activities in India to promote child survival, reduce the spread of HIV, treat victims of torture and violence, help electric cooperatives meet growing service needs, train disaster responders, increase food quality and quantity, and demonstrate U.S. educational and medical technologies and practices. The Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade works with the Government of Japan to implement the U.S.-Japan Clean Water for People Initiative in four pilot countries - India is one of them.
Other Donors: The United States is the fifth largest bilateral donor to India, after Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the European Union. USAID collaborates with other donors on economic growth, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, disaster preparedness and management, air pollution control, urban environmental infrastructure, water, children's basic education, and women's empowerment.
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