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India
The Development Challenge: India, the world's largest democracy, is home to over one billion people, roughly one-sixth of the world's population; 17 million people are added each year. Approximately 82 percent of India's people are Hindu, but it is also the home of one of the world's largest Muslim populations (over 120 million).
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Over 300 million Indians live in abject poverty -- more than all the poor in Africa and Latin America combined -- resulting in India being the country with the world's largest concentration of desperately poor people. India will overtake China as the world's most populous country by 2050 and, if current population growth rates are not reduced, will reach two billion people by 2070. India has about 4.5 million people infected by HIV. The U.S. National Intelligence Council projects that India could have as many as 25 million people infected by 2010 if more aggressive steps to combat the disease are not taken. More than half of the country's children are malnourished. India has thirty percent of the world's births, 20 percent of the world's maternal deaths, and 20 percent of the world's child deaths. Forty-two of every 1,000 female children (compared to 29 male 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, and is one of the world's last countries where significant concentrations of polio infections 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 affect 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 feticide/infanticide, child abuse and rape.
Compounding the serious problems in health and education is India's inadequate infrastructure which slows economic growth. The lack of financial viability in the power sector is having an adverse affect on economic growth. Significant power shortages plague the economy due to unsustainable subsidization policies, a lack of cost-recovery by utilities, and the subsequent inability of utilities to provide reliable, high quality power. The result is widespread financial insolvency of both the utilities and state governments that are forced to bail them out, significantly contributing to increasing levels of state fiscal deficits. The World Bank estimates that current losses in the Indian power sector amount to more than $5 billion per year and are growing rapidly.
The United States and India, the two largest democracies in the world, share many values. Both nations want to dramatically and positively transform 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 South Asia. Since independence, and particularly in the last decade, India has dramatically reduced its levels of poverty. While there remain threats to further gains, with the right policies, peace and continued perseverance, India's development agenda can be completed by the middle of this century or earlier. Moreover, a strong, stable and economically advancing India can be a linchpin for peace and prosperity in the region. India's is the world's 11th largest economy. Its per capita gross domestic product in 2002-2003 was approximately $500. India can achieve a rate of growth of at least eight percent, provided it launches a second generation of economic reforms.
The USAID program addresses many of the challenges, and in so doing 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 2004 and FY 2005 funds for the following programs:
- Economic Growth - targeting increased transparency and efficiency in the mobilization and allocation of resources;
- Health - targeting improved overall health with a greater integration of food assistance, and reduced fertility;
- Disaster Management Support - targeting reduced vulnerability to disasters for marginalized people;
- Environmental Protection - targeting improved access to clean energy and water; the reduction of public subsidies through improved cost recovery; promoting more efficient technology and management; and
- 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 the bilateral program, the Asia and Near East Bureau's (ANE) South Asia Regional Initiative/Energy (SARI/Energy) program encourages regional cooperation in energy development and the eventual trade in clean energy resources among South Asian countries. ANE's SARI/Equity program seeks to address inequity as it affects women and children and funds efforts to combat cross-border human trafficking, end abusive child labor practices and improve women's microfinance services. The United States-Asia Environmental Partnership promotes the adoption of clean and efficient technologies, and policies and practices that support the positive relationship between economic growth and environmental protection in India. The Bureau for Global Health has 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, increase food quality and quantity, and demonstrate U.S. educational and medical technologies and practices.
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, children's basic education and women's empowerment.
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