From: madanga@hobo.ECE.ORST.EDU (Arun Madangarli)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
Subject: Re: Kerala & Human Development Index - UNDP ranking 1990
Date: 11 Dec 92 18:52:25 GMT
Organization: ECE Dept.,OSU,Corvallis
NNTP-Posting-Host: hobo.ece.orst.edu

This is a follow up to the article cross-posted by Thomas Chittooran, from
SCI.  The article establishes Kerala as the state with the highest HDI in
the country, and indeed, as having an extremely respectable HDI, vis-a-vis
a lot of the countries in the world.  In it, Gauri Pavate (the original poster)
asserts that Kerala probably achieved this  stature "....despite a low per
capita income..", because of the remarkable achievements it has made in the
fields of education and health care.

	 This preoccupation with "per capita income" in this context, is
rather misleading in a way. Of course, in many instances it may be the only
index to gauge a country's prosperity, but as far as "Human Development" goes
it presents a rather distorted perspective.  Because, (as far as I can 
understand it),  the per capita income of a region does not in any way give
a clue as to how the wealth (and earnings) are distributed amongst the
populace.  And to gauge the real Human Development (in all its literal and
implied meanings) it is FAR MORE IMPORTANT TO KNOW HOW EQUITABLY WEALTH IS
DISTRIBUTED, than to just establish the existance of wealth.  Now, the way
I understand it, per capita income just represents some sort of ratio
between the earnings of the country, and its population ( I think I am making
an absolute gaffe here; the last time I dabbled in any sort of economics
course was 12 years ago. So correct (read flame !) me if I am wrong 8-) )
And, in an extremely simplistic way, the income doesn't do much good towards
human development, unless it is in the hands of more people, and more people
can spend it. The "per capita" tag attached to this income doesn't tell you
if it is so.

	And this is the most amazing fact about Kerala...This small region
has the most equitable distribution of wealth in the country; and perhaps one
of the best in the world.  In most parts of the world, wealth IS concentrated
in the hands of a relatively tiny minority, and the disparity between the rich
and poor is obscenely high.  Of course, such a disparity exists in Kerala too,
but it is amazingly low, compared to what exists in the rest of the country.
I have seen abject poverty and absolute misery in all the states in that
list, which had higher per capita incomes than Kerala.  And make no mistake
about it, the level of suffering that you can see in the rural Bihar,M.P.,
Orissa,U.P., (even) Haryana,  Rajasthan,etc...cannot be even be comprehended
if you try to gauge this by what is seen in Kerala.

       I believe that this homogenity was brought about (in part atleast)
by the increased awareness of the common man ; especially the labour, in
Kerala ! I know that in this "post-socialist" world, this is a rather
heretical assertion; but I think that the labour unions HAVE done a lot
in acting as a check against exploitation. ( Of course, ofcourse, now
they are exploitng the enterpreneurs,they are the bane of the civilized world
etc..etc..!).
And added to this, the predominantly socialistic agenda of the Kerala 
Governments (no matter whether they are left, right or centre) have given
Kerala a certain infrastructure that few other states have.  It is an 
interesting fact that two of these : The primary health care system
and the public distribution and(?) rural development system , have been
accepted by UNDP as being models for third-world countries.


Again, add to this all the other indices which are either implied or stated
explicitly while determining the HDI. Kerala has the highest life expectancy,
lowest infant mortality rate, lowest birth rate (a direct result of the high
literacy), highest no. of hospital beds per inhabitants...etc etc ! No wonder 
Kerala has such a high HDI ! 


Arun.P.Madangarli