‘JAM trinity’ helped outreach: Report
NEWDELHI:Geography and gender are the biggest drivers of inequality, which can be addressed with smart policies built around digital technology that improves both the quality and reach of government services, said the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s annual Goalkeepers Examining Inequality 2019 report that tracks global progress in meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
The report showcases India’s pioneering “JAM trinity” that stands for Jan Dhan Yojana to help the poor open bank accounts, Aadhaar to provide every Indian with a biometricauthenticated identity number, and mobile phones that increase the reach of services to the poor.
Creating sanitation infrastructure as part of the flagship Swachh Bharat Mission, for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be awarded at the Goalkeepers event next week, is helping India meet SDGs, according to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“A World Health Organization (WHO) estimation of the potential health impacts of Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G) in 2018, on the request of Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, found it averted at least 300,000 deaths and more than 14 million DALYs (disability-adjusted life years, which is a measure of lost productivity) between 2014 and October 2019,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, South East Asia regional director.at the WHO.
About 199 million cases of diarrhoea were reported annually before the start of the SBM in 2014, according to the WHO assessment report. A lack of access to sanitation causes diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, helminth infections and insect-vector diseases such as lymphatic filariasis and trachoma, which indirectly lead to malnutrition, and frequent infections such as tuberculosis and pneumonia because of lowered immunity.
“SBM is a game-changer intervention for improving public health outcomes. Eliminating open defecation and providing sustainable sanitation systems interrupts transmission of infections and leads to an overall reduction in diarrhoea deaths, pneumonia deaths and worm infestations, which has accelerated a decline in child mortality and undernutrition,”said Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan. Toilets also provide dignity, and gender equality improves women’s access to social, healthcare, educational and financial services. “The other broader impacts on well-being are related to stress and anxiety of having to defecate in the open, sexual assault where public facilities are used, and adverse birth outcomes if healthcare facilities have poor sanitation,” said Dr Khetrapal Singh. The gender gap in access to education and services exists in every country, with women globally doing three times more unpaid care work, which is currently valued at $10 trillion per year.
Globally, one billion people lack basic ID proof, and as many as half of the world’s population lacks IDs, with only 55% of women being able to prove their identity compared to 70% of men in low-income countries. Aadhar changed that. “In an analog world, government benefits reached poor people through an inefficient network of intermediaries. In a digital world powered by the JAM trinity, the government can reach people directly — and people can reach back,” said Arshi Aadil, manager, government and social impact, MicroSave Consulting.