If girls go to school it is only to receive a free uniform or the free lunch as they generally look after their siblings or help their mothers. Indian Social Sectors, Centre for Monitoring of Indian Economy, 1996. Only one in every three mothers receive qualified help at the moment of giving birth which leads to the death of 1.2 million women per year. Of the 26 million children born each year, 2.3 million die before they are a year old. Of the survivors, 1.2 million die before they are five years-old.
Malaria also provides cause for concern.
The plan undertaken in 1977 reduced the number of cases of malaria to 2.18 million in 1984. In recent years, cases of malaria have remained at the level of approximately two million cases each year. The incidence of malaria more than doubles this amount in rural areas, concentrated in the over 60 age group, while in the urban areas it mainly affects the under five's. In the sixties, there was a deficit in food production while in the nineties there is a surplus. The irony is that the present surplus is accompanied by a reduction in consumption.