Memorandum submitted by Voluntary Services
Overseas (VSO)
The Case for Aid to India
Reducing poverty in India is critical
to tackling global poverty. India has the highest number of people
living in extreme poverty in the world: 25% of the world's poor,
with 350 million people (35% of the total population in India)
living below the International Poverty Line of $1 per day (UNDP).
Without effective intervention in India, DfID will have no hope
of halving the number of people living in absolute poverty by
2015 as set out in the Millennium Development Goals.
Disability, HIV & AIDS and Poverty
While meeting the broad ambition
of the MDGs is clearly important, huge numbers of people are suffering
from multiple levels of disadvantage and are being marginalized
from the development process. This is especially true in India
where disabled people and people living with HIV and AIDS are
suffering double and triple forms of marginalization and discrimination,
leading to greater disadvantage.
"According to the United
Nations, one person in 20 has a disability. More than three out
of four of these live in a developing country. More often than
not, they are among the poorest of the poor. Recent World Bank
estimates suggest they may account for as many of one in five
of the world's poorest."
DfID Issues Paper Disability, Poverty and Development (Feb
2000).
The World Bank further estimates
that up to 20% of the poorest sections of society are disabled
people (2002). Disabled people are therefore disproportionately
represented amongst those living in extreme poverty.
In India, it is estimated that 70
million people (6% of the population) have an impairment of some
kind, giving India the largest population of disabled people in
the world. Disabled people in India are particularly disadvantaged,
for example: only 8% of disabled children are in full-time education,
compared with a national enrolment rate of 56%. (National Centre
for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People, India)
Where HIV and AIDS is concerned,
approximately 40 million people (1 out of 150 people worldwide)
are living with HIV and AIDS today and 95% of these people are
in developing countries (UNAIDS).
India has the second highest number
of people living with HIV in the world (between 3.9 and 4.5 million
adults as of 2002). While the overall prevalence rate is low,
given the large size of India's population, many different groups
within India are affected, especially those in the poorest sectors
of society.
However, very little is being done
by donors, NGOs and national governments to promote development
that is genuinely inclusive of disabled people and people living
with HIV and AIDS. Such marginalization creates a significant
risk that disabled people and people living with HIV and AIDS
will not be among the millennium development goal's 50% pulled
out of poverty by 2015.
VSO's Approach to Addressing the Needs of Disabled
People and People Living with HIV and AIDS in India
In VSO's own work in India, we believe
that it is essential to build the capacity of organisations of
disabled people and people living with HIV and AIDS to: advocate
for their own rights more successfully; strengthen their membership
(in terms of numbers, geographical coverage and diversity of representation
from individuals affected by double and triple levels of disadvantage);
speak with unity, cohesion and clarity; and run their organisations
more effectively and professionally. In this way, we hope to increase
the confidence, effectiveness and credibility of these groups
so that their concerns are not only heard, but listened to and
acted upon thereby creating a far greater impact than individual
service delivery programmes.
The rationale for working with organisations
of disabled people and people living with HIV and AIDS
is part ideology, part sustainability and part cost-efficiency.
Ideologically, disabled people and people living with HIV and
AIDS must be involved in decisions that affect their lives. This
is a widely accepted principle that is aspired to in almost every
aspect of development.
Secondly, strong, representative,
professional movements of people living with HIV and AIDS, and
of disabled people, will be able to engage more effectively with
governments, donors and all aspects of society. The mutual respect
and understanding gained will help ensure the sustainability of
rights and services that will help lift them out of poverty.
Thirdly, in a country the size and
scale of India, where the combined total of all ODA makes up only
0.35% of India's GDP, the need for identifying opportunities to
maximise the impact of development inputs is crucial. The nascent
movements of disabled people and people living with HIV and AIDS
provide just such an opportunity. Focusing strategically on these
two vulnerable groups enables us to leverage greater impact for
reducing poverty and disadvantage in India.
Many of VSO's partners and potential
partners are disabled people's organisations and organisations
of people with HIV and AIDS. These are: the National Centre for
the Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP); Hemophilia
Federation of India; Action For Autism; the Positive Women's Network;
En-Joy (the West Bengal Network of Positive People); the Deaf
Way Foundation; the Indian Network of Positive People; All India
Confederation of the Blind; and Swabhiman (disability in Orissa).
DfID's Response to Disabled People and People Living
with HIV and AIDS in India
India is DfID's second largest programme
of bilateral assistance, after Iraq. Despite its high levels of
support and poverty focus in India, DfID has been unable to develop
strategic approaches that deal with multiple levels of disadvantage
and genuinely seek to bring the most marginalized groups into
the development process. Two groups that suffer particularly from
these forms of discrimination are disabled people and people living
with HIV and AIDS.
DfID's Issues Paper, Disability,
Poverty and Development, published February 2000 "….assesses
the significance of disability as a key development issue, and
its importance in relation to poverty, human rights, and the achievement
of internationally agreed development targets. It also sets out
ways in which development co-operation, including DfID's own work,
can help incorporate the rights and needs of people with disabilities
into the mainstream of poverty reduction work and the achievement
of human rights." (p1)
Despite Disability, Poverty and
Development's recognition that disability is a cause and consequence
of poverty, DfID's Country Assistance Plan (CAP) for India 2004-2008,
launched 9th March 2004, makes no mention of disability or disabled
people.
HIV/AIDS fares slightly better with
an acknowledgement in the CAP that "more than 4 million
people are infected with HIV/AIDS in India, and while there are
pockets of higher prevalence, the overall rate is less than 1%."
While there are no explicit references
to disability in DfID India's CAP, DfID is implicitly addressing
such concerns through its Poorer Areas Civil Society (PACS) programme.
DfID has also expressed interest in establishing a mini-PPA (programme
partnership agreement) with VSO India. Such initiatives, however,
are essentially opportunistic and random and based on individual
priorities. What is needed is a firmer mandate, with clarity,
coherence and an institutional commitment to engage with disability
and HIV & AIDS on an organisational basis and as clear cross-cutting
themes.
March 2004
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