Kerala’s model of development isn’t all that it’s made up to be: Numbers reveal a different picture

The ongoing Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections went ‘south’ (pun intended) when Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had warned the people of UP that the state would become Kerala, Kashmir, or Bengal if they do not vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the polls.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan was quick to pick this up and criticised his counterpart, saying the latter would be afraid if Uttar Pradesh became like Kerala, as it would enjoy the best education, healthcare facilities and “people won’t be murdered in the name of religion and caste”.

He tweeted, “If UP turns into Kerala as @myogiadityanath fears, it will enjoy the best education, health services, social welfare, living standards and have a harmonious society in which people won’t be murdered in the name of religion and caste. That’s what the people of UP would want.”

अगर यूपी केरल जैसा हो जाता है, जिसका डर @myogiadityanath को है, तो देश की सर्वश्रेष्ठ शिक्षा एवं स्वास्थ्य सुविधा, समाज कल्याण, उच्च जीवन स्तर और सौहार्दपूर्ण समाज को यूपी में स्थापित किया जा सकेगा जहाँ जाति और धर्म के नाम पर लोगों की हत्या नहीं होगी। यूपी की जनता यही चाहती है।

— Pinarayi Vijayan (@pinarayivijayan) February 10, 2022

After the remark, we take a look at a few social development indicators and see where both states stand on issues such as literacy, health, poverty, life expectancy, agricultures, rapes and so on.

Literacy

In terms of education, while nearly 97 per cent of both men and women in the age group of 15-49 years in Kerala are literate, only 82 and 66 per cent respectively are literate in UP.

Interestingly, a look at Kerala’s literacy rate from 1951 to now shows that it has risen from 47 per cent to 96.2 per cent. At the same time, if you see India’s overall literacy rate, it has risen from 18 per cent to 77.95 per cent.

This shows that Kerala, despite having a head start, made an increase of 49.2 percentile points, whereas the rest of the country as a whole has made an improvement by 59.95 percentile points.

Health

In terms of health indicators, infant mortality rate in Kerala is 4.4 per 1000 live births, while it is 50.4 in UP.

Also, a person born in Kerala is expected to live longer, with the average life expectancy in Kerala being 75 years as compared to 65 years in UP.

In 1951, the all India rate was as high as 27.4 per cent and it fell to 7.3 by 2018 per cent. However, Kerala’s infant mortality rate for the same period was 18 per cent to 6.9 per cent.

When you look at India’s life expectancy too, a similar graph can be noted. In 1970-75, Kerala’s life expectancy was 62 whereas the rest of the country’s was 50 years.

In the passing years till 2002, Kerala added another 12 years. The rest of the country, however, added 14 years in the same time span.

Poverty

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday tweeted Niti Aayog’s Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index. As per the index, only 0.71 per cent of the population is multi-dimensionally poor against the national average of 25.01 per cent.

However, when Kerala’s population that lives below poverty line (BPL) is compared with that of the Indian average and a few other states, the southern state’s improvement seems marginal.

According to data released by the Reserve Bank of India, 19.6 per cent of Kerala’s population was BPL in 2004-05, the national number was 37.20 per cent.

In 2011-12, Kerala’s BPL population had come down to 7.05 per cent while that of the entire country stood at 21.92 per cent. In the period from 2004 to 2012, Kerala registered a 12.55 percentile point drop in the population living under the poverty line. The number was 15.28 for all India.

States like Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Bihar did better than Kerala in the same period. While Andhra registered a 20.4 PP decline, Bihar saw a drop of 20.66 PP in its BPL population.

Odisha made the most improvement by reducing its BPL population by 24.61 PP in the same period.

Economic factors

According to data, Kerala’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in 1960 was 56 per cent. However, it has fallen to 9.34 per cent in 2012-2013.

In terms of agriculture in Kerala, the gross cropped area has declined from 29,33,000 hectares in 1970-71 to 25,79,000 hectares in 2017-18.

Additionally, the share of agriculture and allied sectors in the total Gross State Value Added (GSVA) has been declining consistently. Kerala’s GVSA in 2016-2017 was 10.26. However, India’s Gross Value Added was 15.3.

In Kerala, private transfer payments — the earnings of Keralites working in foreign lands — play a key role in the economy. According to the World Bank, India was the recipient of well over $83 billion as remittances from foreign lands in 2018-19. Out of this, Kerala’s share was stated to be 19 per cent.

In 1972-73, the percentage of remittance to Net State Domestic Product (NSDP) was a mere 0.51 per cent. In 2008, this rose to a colossal share of 31 per cent of NSDP. And this number rose to 36.3 per cent in 2017.

Human indicators

Kerala’s love affair with alcohol has been famous over the decades.

According to the latest National Family Health Survey carried out in two phases from 2019 to 2021, Kerala’s alcohol consumption rate among men and women above the age of 15 stands at 19.9 per cent, compared to 37 per cent from five years back.

In 2014-2015, Kerala also topped the list of most divorce cases in the country. The southern state recorded 47,525 cases in 2014 whereas Maharashtra witnessed half as many divorces as Kerala, which has a population a third the size of Maharashtra.

With inputs from agencies

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