India is damned by the tyranny of totals. Given the country’s breadth, its top-line numbers often seem impressive. But the daily lived reality for lakhs of Indians is comparable with the hard-scrabble conditions in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The gleaming top was recently pierced by the video of Janni Sukaramma, who was walking a 7-km path in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram district to a hospital with her ailing 12-year-old daughter on her shoulder. The heart-rending story brought to light the fact that the road, cleared years ago to be built with central funds, is still a rugged path. Recent floods have made the conditions worse. Politicians and bureaucrats boasting about funds allocated for welfare and infrastructure projects must be made accountable for the works delayed.
