NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, April 23, 2015

At a time when foreign-funded NGOs are under the government’s scanner, Melinda Gates, Padma Bhushan awardee and co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, says NGO activism is needed for society to thrive. She was speaking to Sagarika Ghose of The Times of India.

Q: You’ve been taking a keen interest in the beti bachao, beti padhao campaign. Is enough being done?

The government needs to make continued investments in health if they want to make progress for women and children. They have this commitment to India’s Every New Born Action Plan, but continued investments are going to be really important. I was just in Bihar two days ago and I saw they have absolutely the right goals towards new born and child health but there are still gaps in supplies, HR needs, making sure the system works effectively. There’s still plenty of work to be done.