India on track to meet 2015 millennium goals

India is on track to meet its 2015 Millennium Development Goal target on water says a UNICEF report, though sanitation remains a cause for concern.

According to the 'Progress for Children: A Report Card on Water and Sanitation' released by UNICEF, about 445 million people in South Asia, of whom 88 per cent were from India and Pakistan, gained access to improved drinking water between 1990 and 2004.

Yet in many areas in South Asia, including India, naturally occurring arsenic and fluoride contamination are threatening to reverse the gains made in providing improved drinking water.

This report card, the fifth in a UNICEF series that monitors progress for children towards the Millennium Development Goals, measures the world's performance in drinking water and sanitation, which are vital prerequisites for improved nutrition, reduction in child and maternal mortality and the fight against disease.

Things have improved greatly since 1990 when only 3 per cent of the rural population in India had access to proper sanitation, the report notes. In the past decade and a half, considerable progress has been made and evidence shows that approximately a third of India's population today has access to sanitation facilities.

In spite of increased impetus to the sanitation programmes, the pace of progress will have to be considerably accelerated if the country has to meet its 2015 target of 57 per cent coverage.

According to the report, the low level of basic sanitation is the cause of diarrhoea and other diseases and is one of India's biggest public health threats. It is linked to the high rate of under-five mortality -- which is 85 deaths per 1000 live births.

Water and sanitation related illnesses can also affect children's school attendance. Girls in particular may be deterred from schooling by the need to fetch water for their families and by the lack of sanitation facilities in schools.

Among the largest disparities in safe water and basic sanitation are those between urban and rural populations and socio-economic classes. The report draws attention to the fact that within these segments of the population, the women and girls bear the brunt of poor water, lack of sanitation and hygiene facilities.