This interview transcript was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-38, Jan-Feb 1987)
Today 37 years after the establishment of the Republic, a child born in India can expect to live an average of only 57 years. Too many people, especially women and children, die very young, mainly of preventible and easily curable illnesses. Women in the reproductive age group and children are more liable to
succumb, primarily due to a combination of undernourishment and infections.
The surviving population is prey to a host of sicknesses such as tuberculosis, malaria, goitre, and chronic diarrhoea, which seriously damage the quality of their life. A majority of Indian women are anaemic and at great risk during childbirth. India has one of the highest rates of death during childbirth in the world. A large number of children suffer from physical and mental retardation and handi-caps of various kinds as the effect of undernourishment and disease.