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India has signed the Millennium declaration in September 2000, to do all they can do to eradicate poverty, promote human dignity and equality and achieve peace, democracy and environment sustainability. The Millennium Development Goals are recognized as a legitimate policy commitment by the govt. of India to be achieved by 2015.
 

 Millennium Development Goals are as follows:
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‚ Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty
‚ Achieve universal primary education
‚ Promote gender equality and empower women
‚ Reduce Child mortality
‚ Improve maternal health
‚ Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
‚ Ensure environmental sustainability
‚ Develop a global partnership for development.


As a signatory to the Millennium Declaration, India has a huge task ahead. However since September 2000, desired progress has not been made in the direction of attaining these goals. In order to meet the millennium development goals in the remaining 10 years, there is an urgent need to build pressure on political leaders to deliver on their commitments to the goals  

Hence there is a need to link millennium development goals with accountability of institutions and government at both national as well as state levels.
In this context a campaign of civil society actors “ Wada Na Todo” was initiated at national level to strengthen bottom up pressure from village, Panchayats, districts state and nation on the performance of the development oriented basis service delivery systems
This campaign initiated in the state of Uttar Pradesh by UPVAN has been named as “Wada Nibhao” campaign
“Wada Nibhao” campaign has initiated to monitor the grassroots status of girl child education and public health in Uttar Pradesh for influencing the government policies on millennium development goals.


Status of girl child education in the state:


The millennium Development Goals in order to achieve universal primary education stated that all boys and girls should complete primary schooling by 2015.In this context, National development goal has been spelt out in 10 th Five year plans and Uttar Pradesh has adopted this with the aim that no child should be left out and there should no drop outs during their period of primary education. By the year 2003, Children between the age group of 6-11 must be admitted to some primary school and by 2007 every child should complete his primary education. There are facilities of non-formal education and bridge course for drop out children.
 However in spite of such facilities out of 20 crore children, 6.90 children don’t have access to education .The literacy rate in Uttar Pradesh is 57.36%, out of which 70.23%males and 42.28 % females are literate.

Some facts about status of education in Uttar Pradesh have been stated below. (Source: upportal.com)
  • Of the estimated 5 crore children, roughly 3 crore children in U.P do not attend any school.
  • Out of 1.24 villages in U.P., around 40,000 do not have a primary school.
  • Every day the state spends Rs 8 crores on salaries of 3 lath primary and upper primary school teachers.
  • The state is unable to provide safe buildings, drinking water, black boards, toilets etc. to 50% of the 1,59,484 primary schools.
  • Out of every 10 students who enter 1 st grade, only 4 complete 4 years of schooling.
  • Literacy rate 57.36 %, is 17 years behind the national average.
  • The state has 468.71 lakhs literates of whom 332.68 are males.

According to the studies it has come out that though children register themselves in schools due to various policies of government, but they leave school without completing their studies. Drop out children are main reason of lacking behind achieving the universal primary education. A study revealed that 70% children between the age group of 6-10 years attend school, and one third out of these are not able to complete their studies. The drop out rate of children between classes 1 to 5 is high. The drop out rates of girl child is about 62% whereas for males it is 56% .The main reasons stated for this are lack of proper facilities, lack of time due to household work and low standard of education.

Status of Public Health in the state:

The millennium Development Goals stated to reduce by two-thirds the mortality rates among children less than 5 years of age. In the present context of the health facilities, this task seems difficult. The birth rate in Uttar Pradesh is 32.1 per thousand; death rate is 10.1 per thousand and the maternal mortality rate is 707 per 1 lakh population.
In this context it has been stated in National development goals to reduce infant mortality rate to 45 per thousand live births by 2007 and 28 per 1000 births by 2007.The following facilities have been made in order to achieve these goals-
     
1. Increase deliveries by trained personnel     
2. Eliminate condition of anemia among all women by 2001      
3. Increase immunization of all children to 69% by 2006, 85 % by 2011 and complete immunizations of all children by 2016.    
4. Ensure that 50 % of all children receive all required doses of Vitamin A by 2006 and 70 percent by 2016.
5. Reduce the incidence of acute respiratory infections among the children.
Health Watch and KRITI resource centre reports suggested that maternal mortality rate in Uttar Pradesh is 707 per per 1 lakh. The rate of maternity in Uttar Pradesh is highest in the country .

A survey conducted by Mahila Samakhya came out with following findings-

  • In Uttar Pradesh, everyday about 110 women die due to lack of proper medical facilities.
  • There are 5479 abortions daily in the state.
  • Out of every one thousand delivery, 116 are between the age group of 13 to 19 years.
  • Every year only about one fourth of the pregnant women are only able to avail proper medical facilities.
In Uttar Pradesh about 48% women and 47% adolescent girls suffer from anemia.
These statistics clearly show that conditions of hospitals and health centers are very poor. Information from Uttar Pradesh Government reveal that there were only 3 hospitals per 1 lakh population, which is very insufficient. Apart from this the number of trained staff is also less and this directly affects the birth rate and the death rate.

  “Wada Nibhao” Campaign

 Uttar Pradesh Voluntary Action Network (UPVAN) is engaged in creating a conducive environment for voluntary action in the State. With a view to have wider intervention of voluntary efforts, the idea of network emerged by bringing together, different actors of civil society and other voluntary action groups, on a common platform with the mission of increasing cumulative strength of active and dynamic voluntary organizations by enabling them to accelerate their effective voice for social change.
Wada Nibhao campaign have been started in Uttar Pradesh by UPVAN for making the state accountable and responsible in their efforts for realizing the development goals. It will try to monitor the institutions of governance and would find the realities regarding their commitments towards the citizens
It is an initiative of the civil society members to pressure the government regarding their performance of the service delivery system. The data of grassroots realities would be collected and report would be published for circulation to various actors of civil society. These reports and the actual grassroots level reality would also be fed into national programs to influence the policy makers.

 Objectives of the campaign:

It was felt necessary to build up the pressure to the Govt. to influence the policy related to health and education.
  • Grassroots level planning and implementations with field realities;
     
  • Motivations to common people for cumulative strength for putting pressure on government;
     
  • Mobilization of public by organizing demonstrations on important national days
     
  • Make the Government feel responsive and accountable to citizens;
     
  • Engaging organizations to collect collate & disseminate field realities on girl child education and primary health facilities in Uttar Pradesh.
Wada Nibhao campaign would like support and participation of all the actors of civil society to make this endeavor a success.

PLANNED ACTIVITIES OF WNA

The strategy on Wada Nibhao Abhiyan was decided in annual general body meeting held on 3 Oct 2005 . 
Meeting and seminar with member organization regarding collection of data
A state level workshop for discussion on Public Health and Girl Child education.
Media visit in all the 4 regions of U.P.
A four monthly Newsletter on MDG.
Celebrating issue wise days of national importance
Publication of learning material charts and posters.
Analysis, compilation and publication of report for advocacy at both state as well as national level.

                            

Copyright © 2008-2009 : Uttar Pradesh Voluntary Action Network.