How Will Trump 'Shutting Down' USAID Affect India?
Washington DC, US: US President Donald Trump’s battle with the US Agency for International Development, also known as USAID, is making it hard not only for the US but also for countries across the globe that are dependent on Washington for aid. India is also among the countries that depend on USAID funding, especially for some major healthcare projects.
Trump and Elon Musk—the unannounced President of the US, as netizens would like to call him given his overbearing presence in the newly formed government—are on the verge of eradicating USAID. The first move was shutting down the agency’s website, then asking employees to stay out of the agency’s Washington office. The last move pulled by the two was announcing that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be the acting administrator of the agency. It is to be noted that the agency has been running independently for the past six decades.
Trump’s move to dismantle the agency would gravely wound several countries, including India. The agency has been working in India for a decade, since 1951 to be exact. It has been working with India to address various health challenges, including maternal and child mortality, tuberculosis (TB), HIV, and the Covid-19 pandemic. According to IANS, India was to receive $140 million through USAID.
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According to the Times of India, USAID has directed its partners working in India to halt projects. “The recipient shall not resume work under this agreement until notification has been received in writing from the Agreement Officer (USAID) that this award suspension has been cancelled,” read the directive sent.
USAID And India – Education and Healthcare
Founded in 1961, the agency has helped save the lives of more than two million children in India since 1990. It has also prevented 25,000 pneumonia deaths as well as 14,000 deaths caused by diarrhea. It also played key role in training health-care providers on tuberculosis.
It partnered with India in fighting HIV. During COVID 19 pandemic, the agency announced almost $13.1 million in funding to spread public health messages.
Not only in healthcare sector, the agency also helped in education. USAID and its partners work across 16 states to improve reading skills in nine languages in India. It also supports India’s literacy campaign ‘Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat’ (Read India, Progress India), reaching more than two million students, reported NDTV.
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What Is USAID?
At the same time, quoting one official, Hindustan Times reported that USAID’s impact is limited in the country. “India will be able to tide over any cuts in US aid. We have stopped accepting aid that comes with too many conditions, though there has been cooperation with the US in some sectors because of the robust growth in the overall relationship,” said the official.
USAID is the international humanitarian and development arm of the U.S. government. It assists countries in conflict and other “strategically important countries” by alleviating poverty, disease, and other crises, said a report by the Congressional Research Service. The agency was established by then-US President John F. Kennedy as an independent organisation during the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
