Health, Nutrition and Population

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India's Undernourished Children : A Call for Reform and Action

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006) Gragnolati, Michele ; Bredenkamp, Caryn ; Shekar, Meera ; Das Gupta, Monica ; Lee, Yi-Kyoung

The prevalence of child undernutrition in India is among the highest in the world; nearly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa, with dire consequences for morbidity, mortality, productivity and economic growth. Drawing on qualitative studies and quantitative evidence from large household surveys, this book explores the dimensions of child undernutrition in India and examines the effectiveness of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program, India's main early child development intervention, in addressing it. Although levels of undernutrition in India declined modestly during the 1990s, the reductions lagged behind those achieved by other countries with similar economic growth. Nutritional inequalities across different states and socioeconomic and demographic groups remain large. Although the ICDS program appears to be well-designed and well-placed to address the multi-dimensional causes of malnutrition in India, several problems exist that prevent it from reaching its potential. The book concludes with a discussion of a number of concrete actions that can be taken to bridge the gap between the policy intentions of ICDS and its actual implementation.
HIV/AIDS Treatment and Prevention in India : Modeling the Cost and Consequences

(Washington, DC, 2004) Over, Mead ; Heywood, Peter ; Gold, Julian ; Gupta, Indrani ; Hira, Subhash ; Marseille, Elliot

The three policies analyzed in this document include a minimalist policy in which the government strengthens private sector delivery, an intermediate policy of providing treatment for mothers who have AIDS and their spouses, and a generous policy of providing treatment to the poorest 40 percent of all AIDS patients. In January 2004 the Indian government adopted an AIDS financing policy which contains elements of all three of the hypothetical policies analyzed in this book. This study's projections of the total financial cost of the program and of the cost-effectiveness of the three options can help the government and its partners to plan the scale-up of the existing treatment program, to optimize the mix of components in order to improve its cost-effectiveness and to design monitoring and evaluation measures which provide feedback on program performance.
Better Health Systems for India's Poor : Findings, Analysis, and Options

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002) Peters, David H. ; Yazbeck, Abdo S. ; Sharma, Rashmi R. ; Ramana, G. N. V. ; Pritchett, Lant H. ; Wagstaff, Adam

This report focuses on four areas of the health system in which reforms, and innovations would make the most difference to the future of the Indian health system: oversight, public health service delivery, ambulatory curative care, and inpatient care (together with health insurance). Part 1 of the report contains four chapters that discuss current conditions, and policy options. Part 2 presents the theory, and evidence to support the policy choices. The general reader may be most interested in the overview chapter, and in the highlights found at the beginning of each of the chapters in part 2. These highlights outline the empirical findings, and the main policy challenges discussed in the chapter. The report does not set out to prescribe detailed answers for India's future health system. It does however, have a goal: to support informed debate, and consensus building, and to help shape a health system that continually strives to be more effective, equitable, efficient, and accountable to the Indian people, and particularly to the poor.