New Delhi: Governments across South Asia have failed to provide basic services to their people, leaving millions without access to clean water, medical assistance and education, a report by an International aid agency charged on Thursday.
The report, entitled Serve the Essentials and released by the British-based group, Oxfam, called on the Governments of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Nepal to step up their financial and political commitments to provide these basic needs to their citizens.
Among the problems highlighted in the report were 500 million Indians who lack access to sanitation, more than one-third of Pakistani children out of school and 25 million Bangladeshis exposed to arsenic-contaminated drinking water.
But the report also praised these countries for work they have already done, saying that recent progress proved that developing nations could successfully provide for their citizens.
The report singled out Sri Lanka as an example of a developing country that has achieved universal free schooling, drastically reduced infant mortality rates and boosted life expectancy to levels comparable to developed countries.
''Without strong government participation there will be no development of essential services,'' said Oxfam's regional director, Ben Philips. ''There is a lack of investment and political will,'' he said.
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