NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant at the first Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan Memorial Lecture at Jamia Millia Islamia University, Kant said states such as Bihar, UP, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are “keeping India backward especially on social indicators”.
“While we have improved on ease of doing business, we have remained backward on human development index. We are still 131 out of 188 countries in HDI and when the country’s HDI has to improve and we have to focus on these social indicators. We are working on these things through Aspirational Districts Programme,” he said.
Talking on ‘Challenges of Transforming India,’ Kant said the southern and western parts of India were doing reasonably well and growing rapidly., but those like Bihar, UP and Chattisgarh were keeping the country regressive.
While emphasizing the significance of sustainable growth, Kant stated, “Education and health are critical and these are areas in which India is lagging behind. Our learning outcomes are poor – a class 5 student is not able to do class 2 substraction. Class 5 student is not able to read his mother tongue. Infant mortality rates are very high. Unless we improve on these aspects, it will be difficult to grow in a consistent way.”
He also pitched for women’s participation in the decision-making process by saying that there must be a conscious effort to frame policies in such a way so as to give women opportunities.
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