Sarva Sikha Abhiyan gets £150 mn UK backing

The Department for International Development (DFID) of Britain Wednesday announced aid worth 150 million pounds for universalising elementary education in India and another 15 million pound to Bihar for better women and child health.

The funds will go to India’s flagship programme Sarva Sikha Abhiyan (SSA) that aims to to ensure that all children aged six to 14 are enrolled and attend primary school by 2010.

DFID Secretary Douglas Alexander said that there will also be a focus on getting more girls and children from marginalised social groups into education and to improve the quality of education available.

The funding is part of DFID’s new seven-year Country Plan—‘Three Faces of India’—which sets out how the UK will target its support for India’s neediest people.

With the implementation of the plan, the UK will help fight poverty in India’s poorest regions with a particular focus on boosting child literacy, cutting deaths in pregnancy and reducing child malnutrition.

“More that 400 million people in India live on less than 50 paise a day. And we know that without tackling the enormous poverty challenges in India the world will fail to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” Alexander said while launching the plan at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for India.

He said that education is vital in the fight against poverty and our support will help the remaining 7.5 million children in India with no access to education get into school, thereby helping India reach the education MDG target of education for all by 2015.

DFID also announced £15 million aid to Bihar and start of a state development programme. It is working with World Bank and Asian Development Bank to begin its governance reform programme so that the maternal and child health situation can be bettered in the state.

Over the next five years, the Britain will invest £100 million in health and urban services, such as medical care for pregnant women and technical support for local institutions in Bihar.

“Our investments in Bihar will bring down the shockingly high malnutrition rate of 58 per cent in the state and give better medical access to those who need it,” the Secretary said.

The UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced earlier this year that DFID will spend £825 million in India over the next three years, £500 million of which will be spent to improve education access and quality, health for mothers and children, and to fight infectious diseases.

Commenting on the DFID aid, Finance Secretary D Subba Rao said, “In terms of money, international aid coming to India is very less. But its not money which is important but international aid agencies like DFID are important in improving the condition of people.”