JAIPUR: The Human Development Index (HDI) of rural Rajasthan registered a growth of 45 per cent during the decade between 1991 and 2001 though the Index of Deprivation (IOD) too remained high during the period indicating that the State still has a long way to go. Even as the State witnessed a growth of HDI from 0.3983 in 1991 to 0.5709 in 2001 on a total value of 1, the IOD was at 0.4291 and there had been considerable spatial variation in growth among the 237 panchayat samitis spread over 32 districts in six divisions of Rajasthan, a new study conducted by Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur (IDSJ) notes.

The study, titled, "Human Development Index: Rajasthan (Spatio-Temporal and Gender Appraisal at panchayat samiti/bloc level, 1991-2001)", completed recently, makes Rajasthan the first State in the country to have a Human Development Report (HDR) at panchayat samiti (PS) level. Based on UNDP methodology, it is a measure of the average achievements in a panchayat samiti in three key dimensions of human development— health or health status index (HSI), knowledge or education Index (EDI) and standard of living, that is Income Index. Rajasthan Governor Pratibha Patil released the study, in three volumes, recently.

"The HDI level in the State rises from the West and Southwest to the Northeast, North and Southeast direction," notes Hemlata Joshi, project leader of the study. "The vulnerable areas are the Adivasis districts, the arid and semi-arid terrain and the districts where the presence of Scheduled Castes, backward communities and Muslims is considerable."

During 1991-01, all the PSs in Rajasthan registered an increase in HDI value. Dorimanna of Barmer registered the highest increase of 0.2814 while Kotra in Udaipur registered the lowest at 0.0997.

The 50 PSs at the rock bottom in the list of development are in the districts of Banswara, Udaipur, Barmer, Dungarpur, Jaisalmer, Jhalawar, Jalore, Jodhpur, Nagaur, Tonk, Chittorgarh, Bhilwara and Dholpur. Many of the developed districts are nearer to Delhi, Punjab and Haryana while the backward districts are found mostly along the Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh border and along the international border with Pakistan. The study found HDI level above 0.6 in 67 per cent of the PSs in the Bikaner division falling in the North, 51 per cent PSs in Jaipur division (North-East), 25 per cent PSs in Kota division (South-East) and 22.2 per cent PSs in the Central (Ajmer division) areas of Rajasthan. Only 4.8 per cent PSs in the western (Jodhpur division) and 6.7 percent PS in the southern and hilly regions (Udaipur division) qualified in the category (of above 0.6 HDI).

Among individual panchayat samitis, Chechat in Kota district recorded the maximum 0.7590 HDI in 2001 while Peepalkhunt in Banswara had the minimum, 0.3853 HDI. Rajasthan's top 10 PSs in HDI are: Chechat, Sangod, Sultanpur and Ladpura (Kota district), Jhotwara, Sanganer and Kotputli (Jaipur district), Alwar district's Behror, Hanumangarh district's Bhadra and Sadulshahar of Sriganganagar. The top 10 PSs on the wrong side of development are: Peepalkhunt, Kushalgarh and Sajjangarh (in Banswara), Kotra of Udaipur, Simalwara, Aspur and Bichhiwara of Dungarpur, Sheo and Barmer of Barmer district and the panchayat samit Sam in Jaisalmer district.

"In the case of Chechat it maintained its 1991 position to remain at the top but in the case of Peepalkhunt it displaced Sheo to be at the bottom," Prof. Joshi pointed out.

Rattangarh panchayat samiti in Churu registered maximum improvement in its rank to reach 52nd position in HDI from 175th position in 1991. Others in the category include Rajgarh, Churu, Taranagar, Piprali, Khetri, Dungargarh, Sujangarh, Surajgarh and Mahuwa. Balesar of Jodhpur registered the maximum climbdown in its rank preceded by Mandal, Shergarh.

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