- India is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which is often described as an international bill of rights for women. It defines discrimination against women and sets the agenda for national action to end violations of women’s rights.
- Sterilization constitutes 75% of India’s contraceptive use. It is unparalleled in any country in the world today. The closest is Latin America where it forms 40% of all contraceptive methods.
- Another concern is the secular decline in the child sex ratio (CSR– girls per 1000 boys aged 0-4 or 0-6) in India from 976 in 1961 to 918 in 2011; the SRS (2013) reports a figure of 909 for 2011-13. While China’s CSR declined from 121 in 2010 to 117 in 2012, India’s CSR increased from 109 to 111 over the same period.
- Appropriately a new scheme, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) Programme, for promoting survival, protection, and education of the girl child was launched on 22 January 2015 at Panipat, Haryana, a state that is noted for the lowest CSR – 835 (SRS 2013). It aims to address declining CSR through a mass campaign targeted at changing social mind set and creating awareness about the criticality of the issue.
- The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY) launched on 28 August 2014 and the RuPay Card, which is a payment solution, is important schemes in this regard. These two schemes are complementary and will enable achievement of multiple objectives such as financial inclusion, insurance penetration, and digitalization.
- To facilitate coordinated functioning of various social infrastructure and human development programmes, the government has launched the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna (SAGY) which will be implemented through the convergence and implementation of existing government programmes. In addition, the Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojna will be implemented in one block each of ten states that have Fifth Schedule areas.
- The projected average age of 29 years in 2020 has already been surpassed in some states like Kerala (33 years), Goa (32.3), Tamil Nadu (31.3), Himachal Pradesh (30.4), Punjab (29.9), Andhra Pradesh (29.3), and West Bengal (29.1).
- As a percentage of the GDP, expenditure on social services has declined from9% in 2009-10 to 6.7% in 2014-15 (BE), with expenditure on education increasing from 3.0% to 3.1% and on health declining from 1.4% to 1.2%.
- Government spending on healthcare in India is only 1.2% of GDP which is about 4% of total government expenditure, less than 30% of total health spending.
