USAID effectively ran NFHS from 1990s, says EAC-PM member

Sanjeev Sanyal, member of the economic advisory council to the prime minister (EAC-PM), on Monday said those concerned about United States Agency for International Development’s (or USAID) “interference in Indian elections” should be equally concerned about its “tentacles” in India’s medical system and social policies.

Sanyal’s comments come in the backdrop of the US department of government efficiency (DOGE) announcing a series of expenditure cuts, including $21 million allocated for “voter turnout in India” through its foreign aid agency USAID. Headed by billionaire businessman Elon Musk, the DOGE is tasked with improving governance and curbing wasteful expenditures.

“USAID effectively ran India’s National Family Health Survey (NFHS) from the 1990s till it was stopped two years ago,” Sanyal said in a post on X. “This is the most important medical dataset in India and drives a lot of health policy. Not only were we allowing a foreign agency to harvest our medical data but, by allowing them to design surveys and direct analysis, we were letting them influence our national health responses.”

In a follow-up post, Sanyal said that some people were asking why the USAID did the 2019-21 NFHS and was not removed earlier. “Well, it is not so easy to upturn a well established system that went back decades. It takes time to recognise a problem, and build capability to replace it,” he said, pointing out that the incumbent Union government has been “tightening” the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) over the last decade despite many howls of protest.

Earlier on Saturday, the DOGE in a post on X announced cancelling many programmes costing hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars.

“US taxpayer dollars were going to be spent on the following items, all of which have been cancelled,” it said. The list included $486 million in grants to the “Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening” including $21 million for “voter turnout in India”.

Musk has also announced he would shut down USAID, which is responsible for humanitarian efforts around the globe.

Recently, President Donald Trump also criticised USAID, claiming its handling of funds is “fraudulently and unexplainable” and said the agency should “close down.”

“USAID is driving the radical left crazy, and there is nothing they can do about it because how the money has been spent, so much of it fraudulently, is unexplainable. The corruption is at levels rarely seen before. Close it down,” Trump wrote on X.

Several leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have also criticised USAID, with former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar alleging the agency was “funnelling” large sums of money into India to instigate protests.

“This shocking revelation that organisations like USAID were funnelling crores of rupees to organisations in India just confirms that all of these protests that we were seeing over the last several years were foreign-funded. They were being instigated and puppet-mastered from across the border and that there are people in India, including political leaders, dynasts, who have essentially become weapons in the hands of countries and people who don’t want to see India rise,” he said in a self-made video on X.

USAID has been funding a large sum of money on India’s health sector, including in initiatives to combat tuberculosis or polio immunisation programmes. According to US government’s flagship website, ForeignAssistance.gov, which shows US foreign assistance data to the public, USAID “disbursed” $151,880,435 and is “obligated” to disburse $140,471, 959 in the financial year 2024. The previous year, disbursed amount stood at $175, 725, 009 and “obligated” was $127, 366, 506.

In 2023, a large chunk of USAID “disbursement” money– $120 million–went into the category of “Health and Population in India”. In 2024, $80 million also went to the same category.