Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

`State in a phase of `virtuous' growth'

Special Correspondent

CDS report says that gender inequality has come down in health, education services

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The widespread scepticism about the sustainability of the `Kerala Model' of development may no longer hold good if one is to go by the Kerala Human Development Report, prepared by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Planning Commission.

The report, the final draft of which is ready, states that Kerala has entered a phase of `virtuous' growth with the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors displaying `impressive' growth momentum.

The report, presented at a dissemination workshop organised at the CDS on Wednesday, says that the even though Kerala has been successful in reducing gender inequality in access to health and education services, gender inequality persists in other spheres and that gender equality in education and health has not led to elimination of female disadvantage in social and economic spheres.

The report also states that absolute deprivation continues to be largely a monopoly of marginalised communities such as the adivasis and fishing communities and that the hiatus between the Scheduled and non-Scheduled Castes is a symptom of a still uncured aspect of horizontal inequality in the State.

The report notes that the growth and poverty aspects of the Kerala economy displayed a substantial improvement from the late eighties, fuelled by remittances from overseas earnings, growth of the service sector and synergistic relationship between human development and income growth, along with State initiatives in poverty reduction. It, however, points out that though the disparity in human development indicators among various districts is low in Kerala, the incidence of non-income poverty measured through the index of deprivation vary significantly between the districts, with three districts-- Idukki, Palakkad and Wayand--displaying greater degree of deprivation.

According to the report, Kerala's superior educational attainment has been instrumental in promoting out-migration and remittances from the Gulf. These, the report notes, have given an impetus to both consumption and investment and contributed to the post-80s spurt in the growth of the Kerala economy.

It, however, states that there could be no complacency as Kerala's successes also carry seeds of its own failure, `two compelling instances of which are the problems of educated unemployed and growing restrictions to gender freedom'.

The problem of unemployment, the report says, is particularly stark among women and that `there are strong indications that education has combined with conservative gender norms leading to differentiation in male and female employment streams'. The report suggests that policy makers should understand the difference between the `high' road and the `low' road to development, the former warranting a long-term perspective with emphasis on enhancing productive capacity as well as human development.

The report calls for `concerted efforts to improve and develop such critical infrastructure as the supply of power, water control, road and water transport and environmental sanitation.

The report also suggests that there should be a time-bound implementation of the Modernisation Government Programme (MGP) and says that this would strengthen the virtuous cycle of growth that has come about as a result of high level of human development achieved by Kerala.

State Planning Board vice-chairman C. V. Padmarajan inaugurated the workshop. K. P. Kannan, Member, National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector, Government India, who led the team of researchers who prepared the report, presented its salient points.

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