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Contents
[hide]
• 1 History
o 1.1 What was the find in 1970
o 1.2 Human Development Index in 1990
• 2 Reasons for the Kerala Model
o 2.1 Health Care
o 2.2 Kerala model of healthcare
o 2.3 Political awareness
o 2.4 Education
o 2.5 State Policy
o 2.6 Hunger
• 3 Criticism
• 4 Opinions
• 5 See also
• 6 References
• 7 External links
[edit] History
Mahbub-ul-Haq, the pioneer of Human development theory and founder of the Human
Development Report.
The Centre for Development Studies at Thiruvananthapuram with the help of United
Nations, conducted a case study of selected issues with reference to Kerala in 1970s. The
results and recommendations of this study came to be known as the 'Kerala Model' of
equitable growth which emphasised land reforms, poverty reduction, educational access
and child welfare. Professor K. N. Raj, a renowned economist who played an important
role in India's planned development, drafting sections of India's first Five Year Plan, and
a member of the first UN Committee for Development Planning in 1966, was the main
person behind this study. He started the Centre for Development Studies in
Thiruvananthapuram in 1971, by the request of the Kerala Chief Minister C Achutha
Menon.[3] [4]
The Kerala Model brought a sea change in development thinking which was until then
obsessed with achieving high GDP growth rates. However, Pakistani Economist Mahbub
ul Haq in 1990, changed the focus of development economics from national income
accounting to people centered policies. To produce the Human Development Report
(HDRs), Haq brought together a group of well known development economists including:
Paul Streeten, Frances Stewart, Gustav Ranis, Keith Griffin, Sudhir Anand, and Meghnad
Desai.
In collaboration with Raj’s close colleague Amartya Sen, he persuaded the UNDP to
carry out work on Human Development Indicators (HDIs) which started playing a larger
role than GDP in the framing of development policies. Another decade down the road,
the Millennium Development Goals, embracing many of the Kerala Model’s features —
with the notable omission of land reforms — became the new charter of development.
Raj's seminal contribution to development policy thus had worldwide repercussions.[5] [6]
The Human Development Index, which was found by United Nations has become one of
the most influential and widely used indices to measure human development across
countries.
The economists noted that despite being extremely poor, the state had high literacy rates,
healthy citizens, and a politically active population. Researchers began to delve more
deeply into what was going in the Kerala Model, since human development indexes
seemed to show a standard of living which was comparable with life in developed
nations, on a fraction of the income. The development standard in Kerala is comparable
to that of many first world nations, and is widely considered to be the highest in India at
that time.
Despite having high standards of human development, the Kerala Model ranks low in
terms of industrial and economic development. The high rate of education in the region
has resulted in a brain drain, with many citizens migrating to other parts of the world for
employment. The overall job market in Kerala is also very depressed, forcing many
citizens to relocate to places like Dubai, where they may find quality employment or they
may essentially be treated like slaves.
From 1990 onwards, the United Nations came with the Human Development Index
(HDI). This is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human
development" and separate developed (high development), developing (middle
development), and underdeveloped (low development) countries. The statistic is
composed from data on Life Expectancy, Education and per-capita GDP (as an indicator
of Standard of living) collected at the national level using a formula. This index, which
has become one of the most influential and widely used indices to measure human
development across countries, give Kerala Model an international recognition. The HDI
has been used since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme for its annual
Human Development Reports. From the starting of this index, Kerala has topped in all
parameters, even more than the developed countries.
Lakeshore Hospital in Cochin. Kerala has around 2,700 government medical institutions
in the state, with 330 beds per 100,000 population, the highest in the country.
The basis for the state’s impressive health standards is the statewide infrastructure of
primary health centres. There are over 2,700 government medical institutions in the state,
with 330 beds per 100,000 population, the highest in the country.[citation needed] With virtually
all mothers taught to breast-feed, and a state-supported nutrition programme for pregnant
and new mothers, infant mortality in 2001 was 14 per thousand, compared with 91 for
low-income countries generally.[citation needed]
In Kerala the birth rate is 40 per cent below that of the national average and almost 60 per
cent below the rate for poor countries in general. In fact, a 1992 survey found that the
birth rate had fallen to replacement level.[citation needed] Kerala’s birth rate is 14 per 1,000
females and falling fast. India's rate is 25 per 1,000 females and that of the U.S. is 16.
Kerala’s infant mortality rate is 15.3[7] per 1,000 births versus 57.0 for India[7] and 7 for
the US. Its adult literacy rate is 94.59 per cent compared to India’s 65 and the US's 99.
Life expectancy at birth in Kerala is 75 years compared to 64 years in India and 77 years
in the US. Female life expectancy in Kerala exceeds that of the male, just as it does in the
developed world.[8] By contrast, Kerala's maternal mortality rate is poor: 262 for every
one lakh live births, compared with 60 in Sri Lanka.[9]
District wise details of health care institution and beds for as per the 1991 census[10]
However, India ranks at the bottom of the Index in overall score, and performs badly on
many indicators, Kerala, if measured on the same points, would buck the trend. With only
3% of India’s population, the tiny state provides two-thirds of India's palliative care
services. The Economist has lauded the 'Kerala Community Model' in healthcare.
Moreover, The Economist has patted the Kerala Government for providing palliative care
policy (It is the only Indian state with such a policy) and funding for community-based
care programmes.
The magazine said that Kerala is one of the first of India’s states to relax narcotics
regulations to permit use of morphine by palliative care providers. Kerala has also
extended the definition of palliative care to include the long-term chronically ill and even
the mentally incapacitated. Kerala's formal palliative care policy, the only state with such
a policy, the community-based Neighborhood Network in Palliative Care (NNPC) Project
that employs an army of volunteers and the Government funding for these local
community-based care units, almost 260 in number, has earned it many an accolade.
The report said twenty nine out of the 40 countries studied have no formal palliative care
strategy, revealed the report. Only seven - Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland,
Switzerland, Turkey and UK have national policies, while four others - Austria, Canada,
Ireland and Italy are in the process of drafting one. Kerala had long ago recognised the
importance of palliative care as can be seen from the growth of community-based care
units. “The State’s community-operated care system is funded largely through local
micro-donations of as little as Rs 10 (21 US cents) per month. The volunteers in these
units, after training can provide psychological, social and spiritual support. It is this that
marks the NNPC out from more medical-oriented and expensive systems in use
elsewhere,” said the report.
Political awareness among the common people in Kerala and even the children are high,
thanks to the unique political situation that exists in Kerala. Kerala is the first place in the
world to have a democratically elected Communist Party in 1957, with the highest voter
turnout in India. Political history in Kerala shows a trend of an alternating elected right
and left government, which results in an increase in public welfare activities, much to the
benefit of the common man. In each town square, political parties maintain their icons--a
statue of Indira Gandhi or a portrait of Marx, Engels, and Lenin in careful profile. Strikes,
agitations, and stirs, a sort of wildcat job action, are so common as to be almost
unnoticeable. Anthropologist Bill McKibben says “Though Kerala is mostly a land of
paddy-covered plains, statistically Kerala stands out as the Mount Everest of social
development; there's truly no place like it.”[8]
Kerala had been a notable centre of Vedic learning, having produced one of the most
influential Hindu philosophers, Adi Shankaracharya. The Vedic learning of the
Nambudiris is an unaltered tradition that still holds today, and is unique for its orthodoxy,
unknown to other Indian communities. However, in feudal Kerala, though only the
Nambudiris received an education in Vedam, other castes as well as women were open to
receive education in Sanskrit, Mathematics and Astronomy, in contrast to other parts of
India.
The Pallikkoodams started by Christian missionaries paved the way for an educational
revolution in Kerala by making education accessible to all, irrespective of caste or
religion. Christian missionaries introduced English education to empower the common
man to throw away the yoke of bondage inflicted by themselves by centuries old customs
and practices. Communities such as Ezhavas, Nairs and Harijans were guided by great
visionaries and monastic orders (Ashrams) - Sree Narayana Guru, Sree Chattambi
Swamigal & Ayyankali - who exhorted them to educate themselves by starting their own
schools. That resulted in numerous Sree Narayana schools and Nair Service society
schools. The teachings of these saints have also empowered the poor and backward
classes to organize themselves and bargain for their rights
The upper castes, such as Nairs, Tamil Brahmin migrants, Ambalavasis, as well as
backward castes such as Ezhavas had a strong history of Sanskrit learning. In fact many
Ayurvedic Physicians (such as Itty Achudan) were from the backward Ezhava
community. This level of learning by non-Brahmin learning was not seen in other parts of
India. Also, Kerala had been the site of the notable Kerala School which pioneered
principles of mathematics and logic, and cemented Kerala's status as a place of learning.
The prevalence of education was not only restricted to males. In pre-Colonial Kerala,
women, especially those belonging to the matrilineal Nair caste, received an education in
Sanskrit and other sciences, as well as Kalaripayattu (martial arts). This was unique to
Kerala, but was facilitated by the inherent equality shown by Kerala society to females
and males, since Kerala society was largely matrilineal, as opposed to the rigid patriarchy
in other parts of India which led to a loss of women's rights.
The rulers of the Princely state of Travancore (Thiruvithaamkoor) were at the forefront in
the spread of education. A school for girls was established by the Maharaja in 1859,
which was an act unprecedented in the Indian subcontinent. In colonial times, Kerala
exhibited little defiance against the British Raj. However, they had mass protests for
social causes such as rights for "untouchables" and education for all. Popular protest to
hold public officials accountable is a vital part of life in Kerala.
In the 1860s, the government spread the educational programs into Malabar, the northern
state that had been ruled directly by the British, and began granting scholarships to
Harijan (untouchables) and tribal peoples.[citation needed] By 1981, the general literacy rate in
Kerala was 70 per cent - almost twice the all-India rate of 36 per cent. The rural literacy
rate was almost identical, and female literacy, at 66 per cent, was not far behind. The
government continued to press the issue, aiming for "total literacy," usually defined as
about 95 per cent of the people being able to read and write.
A pilot project began in the Ernakulam region, an area of 3 million people that includes
the city of Kochi. In late 1988, 50,000 volunteers fanned out around the district, tracking
down 175,000 illiterates between the ages of 5 and 60, two-thirds of them women. Within
a year, it was hoped, the illiterates would read Malayalam at 30 words a minute, copy a
text at 7 words a minute, count and write from 1 to 100, and add and subtract three-digit
numbers. On February 4, 1990, 13 months after the initial canvass, Indian Prime Minister
V.P. Singh marked the start of World Literacy Year with a trip to Ernakulam, declaring it
the country's first totally literate district. Kerala's literacy rate 91%[17] (2001 survey) is
almost as high as in China (93%) or Thailand (93.9%).
[edit] Hunger
According to the India State Hunger Index, Kerala is one of the four states where hunger
is only "serious".[19]
[edit] Criticism
Despite its achievements, the model is heavily criticised for the low industrial
development in the state and high levels of unemployment. The educational reforms
failed to make a direct mark on the state, as people were left with no option but to go
abroad for work options. Today, with over a third of the population of the state living
abroad,[citation needed] the policy in effect, created a brain drain scenario.
[edit] Opinions
British Green activist Richard Douthwaite interviewed a person who remembers once
saying that "in some societies, very high levels — virtually First World levels — of
individual and public health and welfare are achieved at as little as sixtieth of US nominal
GDP per capita and used Kerala as an example".[20]:310–312 Richard Douthwaite states that
Kerala "is far more sustainable than anywhere in Europe or North America".[21]Kerala's
unusual socioeconomic and demographic situation was summarized by author and
environmentalist Bill McKibben:[22]