Even when in a position of considerable power, a politician can, in some situations, only do so much. The right intentions, with the wherewithal to carry them out, certainly go a long way. The Congress president, Ms Sonia Gandhi, said that health must be brought to the ?centre of political discourse?, in her address at a meeting on the health of mothers and children. Since improving the lives of India?s poor was a priority with the United Progressive Alliance, she said, the government was spending more on education, health, clean water and sanitation. Money is one aspect of the coordinated route to improvement that Ms Gandhi envisages. The Congress president emphasized the spread of awareness, particularly in the context of female infanticide, and said that party workers would execute this aspect of the task in villages and small towns. Equally necessary is the efficiency of the delivery system, and Ms Gandhi felt that panchayats should be given greater responsibility to this end.

While this is a promising and practicable plan, it is necessarily limited by the complexity of the task and the confining categories within which administrations must function. The murder of newborn girls or the destruction of female embryos is a terrible link in an unending chain of devaluation and exploitation. Spreading awareness would mean tackling the roots of this shapeless yet insurmountable mass of ignorance, superstition, fear and hatred. Underage marriages, neglect, lack of education and of nutritious food are so common as to escape notice. The workers themselves would have to be trained to approach these issues in households where scarce resources are at least as important as traditional anti-women cultural practices in creating a society hostile to women. While Ms Gandhi?s perception of the importance of delivery systems is reassuring, it will have to be seen how greater responsibility in the hands of panchayats works out in everyday terms. It is often the panchayat heads who deliver the harshest judgments on women accused of adultery or wanting to marry outside their caste or community. Intervention at this level is tricky: to be of any use, it has to begin with the raising of awareness about social and cultural practices as well as the spread of consciousness specifically about women and children?s health.