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Sparing Mr Modi’s blushes

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Sparing Mr Modi’s blushes Empty Sparing Mr Modi’s blushes

Post by confuzzled dude Thu Jun 25, 2015 1:05 pm

A much-debated case study is the western state of Gujarat, where Narendra Modi was chief minister for a dozen years before becoming prime minister. Calling his state a model, he boasted that incomes there were among India’s highest. He dismissed critics who said he was neglecting health and social policy—once explaining how Gujarati women suffer high levels of malnourishment because they are “beauty-conscious” and refuse to eat.
The full set of figures on immunisation rates, obtained by The Economist, suggests a striking lack of progress in Gujarat under Mr Modi. Just after he took office in 2001, 54% of children were being fully immunised against preventable diseases—well above the national average of 46%. Gujarat was then 16th-best of 31 Indian states and territories assessed. By 2014 when he left there was only a tiny improvement, to 56.2%, far below the national average of 65%. Gujarat’s rank had fallen to 21st of 29 states surveyed. Most remarkable, it was behind even notably poor and backward states such as Bihar (see chart). One indicator of the strength of a health system is how many of those who get a first dose of a vaccine fail to get subsequent ones. The new survey suggests that wealthy Gujarat’s dropout rate for the polio vaccination is almost 21%. The national average is 12%.

As prime minister, just as previously, Mr Modi has paid scant attention to health. Overall spending by the central government on health and education, already low, has been cut. Mr Modi prefers to let individual states take charge. His record in Gujarat suggests that approach is flawed.
http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21656239-missing-data-should-embarrass-prime-minister-sparing-mr-modis-blushes

confuzzled dude

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