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Tuesday, Jun 01, 2004

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Another first for State

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, MAY 31. Rajasthan will soon become the first State to formulate a human development report at the Panchayat Samiti level on the basis of development status index worked out with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) methodology. The three factors taken into account for the report are education, health and economy.

The project has been undertaken by the Jaipur-based Institute of Development Studies, which has completed an in-depth analysis of education and economic aspects in two phases and will take up the study of the health factor in the final phase. The appraisal of economic development index was completed recently by an IDS faculty member, Hemlata Joshi.

Prof. Joshi told The Hindu here today that she had measured economic development at the Panchayat Samiti level with the help of income index, gender-related income index and human poverty index, going beyond the conventional per capita income concept. Besides making extensive analyses, the study has also pointed to possible actions on the economic development front.

Explaining the main findings of the study, Prof. Joshi said despite a 43 per cent increase in income index and 11 per cent rise in gender-related income index during 1991 to 1998 at the constant prices, the index of deprivation remained high and Rajasthan had to go a long way to achieve the targeted value. The per capita income of rural areas in the State during the period rose from Rs. 4,523 to Rs. 6,432.

The changing relative status of Panchayat Samitis was brought out through indices, spatial distribution pattern, division-wise and district-wise classification, and distribution of areas having very high, high, medium, low and very low indices. A great deal of spatial variation was seen in the income index among the 237 Panchayat Samitis spread over 32 districts and six divisions in the State. The economic development status increased from south-west and south to north-east, north and south-east direction. Prof. Joshi said the regional disparity in economic development had increased during the period of study.

While Sangod Panchayat Samiti in Kota district in 1991-92 and Sanganer in Jaipur in 1998-99 secured the top rank in the State, Aspur in Dungarpur district was the most deprived Panchayat Samiti and maintained its bottom rank.

The poverty across the State decreased marginally during the 1990s with the human poverty index coming down from 57 per cent in 1991 to 55 per cent in 2001. As many as 157 Panchayat Samitis in the State had human poverty index measuring more than 50 per cent during 2001.

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