Thursday 10 November 2011

Child health and the 12th Plan

The Approach Paper to the 12th Plan sees the projected 32% increase in India’s labour force in the next two decades as a demographic dividend. But is the 12th Plan focusing sufficiently on the health, nutrition and education of the children who will form this labour force in the coming decades, asks Alex George
The draft Approach Paper of the 12th Plan was approved by the cabinet and presented to the National Development Council on October 22, 2011. The paper, which projects a growth rate of 9% for the 12th Plan, envisages that inclusiveness, an idea carried over from the 11th Plan, should lead to poverty reduction, increase in health outcomes and universal access of children to schools. It further states that inclusiveness should include providing opportunities for wage employment and livelihoods, and improved provision of water, sanitation and housing. All these have implications for improving child health and reducing childhood poverty.

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