EPW Article -------------------- Black Spots in Kerala's Socio-Economic Scene Kerala now enjoys a high rate of economic growth and remittances continue to boost consumption. But going by a number of socio-economic indicators – such as farm production, unemployment, incidence of lifestyle diseases and suicides – the state is no 'god's own country'.
A K Pat http://www.epw.org.in/showArticles.php?root=2005&leaf=06&filename=8735&filetype=html called as 'god's own country' in the tourism parlance. What could have earned the region this distinction is a beautiful and inviting landscape, friendly climate and unparalleled social system with a guarded communal harmony and peace. If this is so from a macro perspective, what is the reality obtaining in the various socio-economic spheres or how far does the state of affairs conform to the projected splendid picture of the state? Recent research studies have proved that Kerala over the years has moved away from the economic development position that earned it what is called the 'Kerala Development Model'. Under this, the state ranked first in the human development index in spite of its low per capita income, industrialisation and urbanisation. It now enjoys a high physical quality of life as well as high economic growth with the state domestic product and per capita income comparing favourably with other states. The trends in the net state domestic product indicate that there was a turnaround in the growth of the state economy in 1986-87, which was supported by the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy, while the predominant contribution (55 per cent) being from tertiary sector. The state has been an immense beneficiary of the annual remittance by the expatriates. Total remittances to the state in 2003-04, for instance, were estimated to be Rs 18,364 crore from all countries. The high level of inward remittances has been indirectly giving a boost to the growth of the tertiary sector in the state and tradable goods production in the other states. However, it was noticed that the tradable goods sector in the state was sluggish for (i) the entrepreneurs have been reluctant to set up production facilities in the state for want of a congenial investment climate and (ii) the farm sector, in particular the commercial crops, was affected by liberalisation measures; and (iii) the expansion in the tertiary sector was not broad-based or with the needed linkages. Hence, the higher economic growth did not result in higher employment and comprehensive welfare of all the sections of the population. Unemployment Kerala's major economic problem proverbially is unemployment. According to the data released by the government of Kerala, there were 38 lakh unemployed persons registered with the employment exchanges at the end of March 2004 as against 32 lakh in 1995. The employment situation would look grimmer if the position outside employment exchanges is also taken into account. About 2.5 lakh persons are graduates and over 7 lakh unemployed have completed secondary school courses. There were 3,000 medical graduates who were unemployed. Although the overall unemployment situation is severe, there are jobs going abegging in the unorganised sector. Work in the plantation, construction and road building, farming, etc, which call for hard physical labour, are taken up by the labourers from nearby states as well as from Nepal and West Bengal. For these job-seekers, Kerala is what the west Asia is for the Kerala people! Even the jewellery business which flourishes in the state has to depend on migrant workers from other states. A field survey indicated that the number of female workers engaged in various activities showed a declining trend. Over the decade ending 2004, the number of female workers in the state reportedly fell by 11 per cent. Women workers in the farm sector are employed only for 3 to 4 months in a year. The education sector reported fall in the number of lady teachers. The number of unemployed women far exceeded unemployed men. Agricultural Sector The agricultural sector, the mainstay of the economy, has been showing a lacklustre performance. For instance, in the case of foodgrains, Kerala's share was only 0.3 per cent of the total production in the country in 2003-04 as against 1 per cent in 1980-81. The state has been recording negative growth rates in the production since 1980-81, barring a few exceptions. The production of rice – the staple food of the people – was only 5.7 lakh tonnes and has been registering decreases over the years (12.7 lakh tonnes in 1980-81) and formed only one-fifth of its total consumption. Kerala's share in the total rice production of the country was 2.4 per cent in 1980-81 but fell to 0.7 per cent in 2003-04. The state government has been unable to procure what is produced at the support price forcing the poor farmers to sell at below the production cost. Dependency of the state on the rest of the country for foodgrains is significant and growing, with its far-reaching consequences. Furthermore, production trends in the commercial crops sector do give scope for concern. The average annual growth of production of coconut, rubber, tea and pepper in the period 2001 to 2004 has been significantly lower than that in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, the rate of growth of coconut and tea turned negative recently. The strength of the organised labour in the state needs no mentioning. Strikes are very common and there are varied reasons such as non-payment of minimum wages, termination from service, claims for bonus and higher wages and disciplinary action against the labourer by employer, etc. The number of mandays lost in Kerala was the highest in 2002 at 88 lakh in 3,705 labour disputes according to the labour department. In 2003, the number of labour dusputes touched a high of 4,553 with a loss of 20 lakh mandays. In 2004 (till September) there occurred 1,790 disputes and loss of 13.5 lakh mandays. Frequent hartals also cause disruption in economic activity and huge production losses prompting the companies to go slow on their expansion programmes. Lifestyle Diseases The Economic Review for 2004 disclosed that the incidence of lifestyle and non-communicable diseases like diabetics, hypertension, mental diseases and heart diseases are much higher in Kerala than in other states. With regard to epilepsy and cancer, the cases are lower in the state, but the incidence of cancer has been increasing over the past years. According to the estimates 1 per cent of the population in the state at any time is afflicted by mental illness, while about 3 per cent of population even suffers from minor mental disorders. The incidence of major communicable diseases like leprosy, filaria, malaria and TB is reportedly going down, but the prevalence of respiratory infection is spreading. The state has an estimated HIV population of between 70,000 and 1 lakh. Suicide deaths are also high and rising in the state. The estimated rate is 28.8 persons per 1 lakh people as against the national average of 11.6 per 1 lakh. More pointedly, the state accounts for about 10 per cent of all suicides in India when its population is only 3 per cent of the total population. Suicides are attributed to varied factors like failure of agricultural crops, mounting indebtedness, alcoholism, unemployment, and despair caused by the inability to meet one's own high expectations of living standards, etc. Kerala has the dubious distinction of consuming a large quantity of alcohol. Perhaps this may be the reason for its second position in the matter of road accidents, next to Maharashtra. According to the National Transportation and Planning and Research Centre and the state traffic department, the number of road mishaps in 2004 rose to a high of 41,220. In these accidents 3,066 persons lost their lives on the national and state highways. The number of accidents in 1960 was around 2,000. Most of the mishaps, 50 per cent of which occurred on the national highways, was stated to be on account of the fault of the drivers. Scandals and Corruption In the case of political and economic scandals also, Kerala is not lagging behind. As soon as a scam is uncovered, an agitation or public outcry erupts. In a bid to dowse the public agitation, the government orders a judicial enquiry. As many as 20 judicial commissions have been appointed by the successive Left and United Front governments during the past decade and they have spent crores of rupees. According to reports, beginning with the enquiry into the scandal relating to rice purchase from Andhra Pradesh in 1950, over 100 judicial commissions were appointed in the state to enquire into scandals covering subjects such as liquor tragedies, disasters, accidents, police atrocities, corruption, sexual harassment, etc. Even though the commissions submitted their report with considered recommendations, the government was not very keen to implement them, and hence, many reports are gathering dust in the concerned government departments. In the matter of placing the judicial commission report before the state assembly and implementation of recommendations, the provision of the Commission of Enquiry Act 1952 which stipulates that the commission reports and action taken report thereon, should be submitted to the state assembly within six months from the date of report submission, is not often complied with. The opposition party in the state assembly which is vociferous at the time of occurrence of the incidents and forces a judicial enquiry, soon develops cold feet and shows negligence and indifference in following up the reports As elsewhere in the country corruption is the bane of the government administration, in spite of the intensive drives launched by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau in many corruption-prone departments like RTO offices, registration, state electricity board, revenue, and civil supply departments. In 2003-04 the number of vigilance cases registered was 199 involving 646 public servants as against 129 and 334, respectively, in 2001-02. The number of vigilance enquiries ordered by the government in 2003-04 was 380 as against 305 in 2001-02. Public servants involved were 918 and 618, respectively. The level of corruption did not show any change, but mode of corruption seems to have changed in the context of vigilance drives. Debt Trap What is more, the state seems to be heading towards a debt trap. As resource mobilisation failed to keep pace with rising government expenditure and the fiscal deficit widened, the public debt of the state government showed a fivefold increase between 1994-95 (Rs 8,821 crore) and 2004-05 (Rs 42,766 crore). During 1996-2000, the average annual growth of debt was 18.2 per cent and between 2001 and 2005 it was 16.2 per cent. On the other hand, the average annual growth of state domestic output at current prices was lower at 14.5 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively, during the same period. The state's public debt as a percentage of net state domestic product consequently shot up to 49 per cent in 2004-05 from 30 per cent in 1994-95.The trends in the average debt-NSDP ratio suggested that the increase in indebtedness was pronounced during 2001-05. (The debt-NSDP ratio rose to a high of 44 per cent in the period 2001-2005, from 30 per cent in 1996-2000). A significant portion of incremental debt seems to have been utilised for debt servicing. While debts incurred for funding projects with higher yield and social utility may service the liabilities in time on a sustainable basis and are hence benign, that raised for financing consumption and non-productive expenditure will have a disastrous effect on the health of the economy. What is a matter of grave concern is that, these identified black spots on the socio-economic map are gaining in density. Rising unemployment, restrictive labour practices, a high incidence of lifestyle diseases, falling farm production, cases of scandals and corruption, rising incidence of suicides, record road accidents and associated deaths, consumerism, and mounting government debt do bedevil Kerala's society and economy. Is this the price that the people of Kerala have to pay for the type of economic and social development as well as the governance taking place in the state or are there some not-so-easily identifiable various factors behind the observed phenomena? "Do not judge me by my actions; Do not judge me from man's point of view" "Judge me from God's - by the hidden purpose behind my actions. Regi George wishing you Good Luck. Thanks --------------------------------- How much mail storage do you get for free? Yahoo! Mail gives you 1GB! Get Yahoo! 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