The World Bank has approved a $54 million credit from the International Development Association, its soft loan arm, to India to help improve the quality and safety of food and drugs in the country.
The Food and Drugs Capacity Building Project will be the first stage of a long-run programme supporting India's vision of ensuring safe, high quality food and drugs for the public.
"The project will benefit society at large, but in particular the poor, who will gain from lower morbidity and premature mortality as a result of increased safety and quality of foods and drugs available," a bank release said.
"India, has made considerable progress in improving the health status of its population in the last 50 years, but disparities between regions and between the poor and non-poor continue to widen," it said.
"Food and drugs oversight is an essential public health function, but inadequate institutional arrangements and limited financial resources prevent India from fulfilling its role," the bank said.
"In addition, India has a large and rapidly expanding food and drugs industry, and pharmaceuticals are a large and growing component of health care expenditure.
"Consumption of street foods as well as processed foods is also on the rise, as is the concern for consumer protection," it said.
"The poor would especially benefit from the Food and Drugs Capacity Building Project because they are more likely to be victims of poor quality foods and access to medication," said G N V Ramana, a senior public health specialist for the World Bank and task leader for the project.
"Recent household surveys in India indicate that the incidence of diarrhoea in children under five is 20 per cent higher for the poorest quintile of the population as compared to the highest quintile. The true difference is probably greater, since poor households tend to under-report illnesses," Ramana said.
The project has three components: policy development, program coordination and monitoring, consisting of strengthening of the government's food and drug directorates, and improved programme coordination and monitoring.
Improvement of central physical facilities for food and drugs oversight, and related staffing are also included, as is monitoring activities, such as the implementation of household surveys to assess public perceptions about quality and safety of foods and drugs.
