“Fate has allowed humanity such a pitifully meagre coverlet that in pulling it over one part of the world, another has to be left bare”

Rabindranath Tagore, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913, uttered these prophetic words almost a century ago.1 He might have said this as he witnessed the plight of the starving multitudes in Bengal. As I write this piece at the turn of the new millennium, I am painfully aware of the masses of people in western India and Pakistan who are caught once again in the grips of an unprecedented drought and an acute shortage of food. Yet, while much has remained unchanged, in many ways the subcontinent has made tremendous strides since securing independence almost 50 years ago. It boasts a modern industrial infrastructure; globally, it exports the bulk of people with expertise in computer software and information technology; and it has nuclear weapons capability. But recent policies of structural adjustment have led to an increase in poverty and social inequity and comparatively few resources have been allocated to health care and health related research.2 In south Asia, especially in India and Pakistan, indicators of the health of mothers and children remain poor, and statistics on health and nutrition in the area rank among the worst in the world (table 1).3-6