The Hindu : Kerala News : Call for shifting focus to quality in all spheres

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 19, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Call for shifting focus to quality in all spheres

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 18. The crux of the challenge facing Kerala is to remove the "mismatch" between its social transformation and economic development, the director of the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) here, K. P. Kannan, has said.

Delivering the K.M. Basheer Memorial Lecture organised by the Vakkom Moulavi Foundation here on April 16, Dr. Kannan said the high quality of social transformation in the State was in sharp contrast to the low quality of economic transformation, which was characterised by a continuing and high level of unemployment as well as a low per capita income.

Kerala's economy had done well since the late 1980s and even witnessed a reduction in unemployment although this was confined only to men. But Kerala needed to prepare itself to confront globalisation in a creative way and turn its dependence on the rest of the world to one of interdependence. For this, the State needed to concentrate on economy-wide technological change and innovation to increase all-round productivity including that of the public services and enterprises.

Dr. Kannan pointed out that Kerala needed a long-term perspective in development, which emphasised on a shift in focus from quantity to quality in all spheres. The focus should be on enhancing the quality of education, especially that of higher education, enhancing efficiency in infrastructure such as power, transport and public health and thirdly, on enhancing the quality of governance.

According to him, the objective conditions in the State were now ripe for a shift of emphasis from quantity to quality. In the area of population, Kerala had almost completed its demographic transition as if in textbook fashion. It would reach a stable population of around 35 millions (currently 31 millions) within the next 10 years and so there was nothing to worry on that front.

Around 60 to 62 per cent of the population of the State would be in the labour force age group of 15 to 59 years for the next 20 years, and the main task was to ensure the employment and employability of this age group. Only 10 per cent of the current work force of around 12 millions was employed in the formal sector and an equal share was in the Gulf countries. This meant that 80 per cent of the work force was doing low quality work in the informal sector including agriculture.

Dr. Kannan pointed out that there was not only a mismatch between qualification and the work done, but also a problem of matching qualifications with job opportunities. Most of the unemployed had only studied up to SSLC or higher secondary classes. Unemployment was low among those with technical and other specialised qualifications. However, fewer and fewer of the unemployed young offered themselves for manual work and hence the phenomenon of migration of unskilled workers into Kerala.

The challenge before the State was to equip its younger generation with the necessary knowledge and skill, a task that called for focus on higher education, Dr. Kannan said. A large number of the young people had positioned themselves to seek opportunities abroad much before the current process of globalisation. Apart from remittances, the international migration had contributed to exposing close to 2.5 million people to the outside world, mainly through their life and work in the Gulf countries. They were exposed to people from different countries and cultures, modern technologies, organisation and management and this new knowledge acquired by them was being put into practice in Kerala. So, whether one liked it or not, Kerala had been globalised for quite some time now, and the challenge was only to confront it in a way that would benefit the State.

Dr. Kannan pointed out that Kerala led the country in terms of composite indices such as the Human Development Index. The level of development in the State was at least 20 countries above that of India and close to the levels in countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.This achievement in social development had changed the expectations of the younger generation and in terms of employment, there were seeking "jobs" and not "work".

Kerala was ready for an overall technological change in the economy and this change should start with the primary sector including agriculture, fishing and livestock development. The primary sector now accounted for the generation of less than 20 per cent of the income and 35 per cent of the employment in the State, Dr. Kannan said. This meant that 80 per cent of the income and 65 per cent of the employment were accounted for by the non-agricultural sectors of the economy. In fact, the service sector was the leading sector in the State and this sectoral imbalance had to be corrected by placing emphasis on technological change and innovation in agriculture and industry. Innovative and technologically upgraded industries had to be introduced in the primary and secondary sectors.

Apart from strengthening higher education, a key factor of the strategy for bringing about overall technological innovation was the provision of a well-oiled infrastructure, Dr. Kannan said. Here again, the focus had to shift from quantity to quality with the exception of electrical power, which required both quantitative expansion and the provision of quality power. The continuing dismal performance in terms of infrastructure was perhaps one of the major reasons why the State was unable to attract sufficient investment in both agriculture and industry.

Dr. Kannan said the monumental failure was in the fields of water and land management, where the capital waste by the Government departments concerned was not only massive, but was also being ignored. The same was the case with the power and road sectors. The dismal performance of the infrastructure sector in the State was in sharp contrast to the people's achievement in social development.

Kerala also need to pay attention to improving the quality of governance as a well-functioning governance system not only aided development, but also accelerated it, Dr. Kannan said. Ultimately, the challenge before Kerala was to make use of several "initial" advantages it enjoyed to set the public system in order and shift the focus from quantity to quality.

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