Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

TN betters national average in GDI too

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI Aug. 9. In its first effort at producing a Human Development Report for Tamil Nadu, the State Planning Commission has managed to construct a Human Development Index for all 29 districts, using the UNDP methodology.

Against a State HDI of 0.657, the value in the districts varies between 0.757 and 0.584.

Chennai leads the pack, while Dharmapuri ranks last in the list. The relatively high per capita income of the State's capital has "considerably influenced its HDI value", says the report.

The report has also gone into a Gender Development Index, which is a summary measure found useful in comparing stages of gender development. The GDI for Tamil Nadu was 0.654 against a national value of 0.560, the HDR said.

"This shows that Tamil Nadu's achievement in gender equality is better than that of the country as a whole. GDI values for the districts vary from 0.766 to 0.582 (see chart). Chennai tops once again and Dharmapuri stands last. The other districts which fare well are Kanyakumari, Thoothikudi, Kancheepuram and Coimbatore — same districts which fare well with regard to the HDI".

The report notes that there is not much divergence between the HDI and GDI, indicating that women suffer lower achievement than men if the GDI is lower. In other words, gender equality is indicative of human development.

In a related study, the report has divided districts into three categories, based on the level of poverty. Six districts - Cuddalore, Tiruvannamalai, Dindigul, Thoothukudi, Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli - fall in the high poverty range, above 40 per cent; Chennai, Vellore, Salem, Thanjavur and Madurai come under the `moderate poverty' category, ranging from 30 to 40 per cent; the remaining 11 districts come under the `low poverty' class, with below 30 per cent poverty level.

The HDR wants the Crude Birth Rate to be reduced from the current 19.3 to about 14 by 2010 and says this can be achieved by enhancing the marriageable age to 22 for girls and prescribe a three-year gap between one child and another. The Infant Mortality Rate should be reduced to at least 40 by 2005 and 30 by 2010. This is possible only with a reduction in neo-natal and peri-natal mortality rates by 70 per cent. Maternal mortality rate should also be reduced from the present 1.5 per 1000 to less than one by the end of the decade.

Concern over HIV incidence

A cause for concern on the health and social fronts seems to be the incidence of HIV-AIDS in Tamil Nadu, highest in the country. The HDR calls for educational and prevention measures to combat this menace.

There has been a close look at education and literacy in the State, with a suggestion for reorientation of strategies to achieve universalisation of elementary education.

Mapping of schools could be carried out to ensure that new schools are opened on a rational basis.

The estimated 1.5 million dropouts in the 9-15 age group should be covered through non-formal means by increasing the project centres.

The employment or unemployment problem has also been looked at in the report, with some critical points emerging from the analysis. Given the limited capacity of agriculture to absorb additional labour, more so in water scarce areas, it suggests the promotion of a strategy for absorption of agricultural labour in other sectors and increasing productivity levels in the farm sector.

The report also calls for a focussed attention on training and re-training of manpower to meet the skill demands of the future.

Undesirable practices of child labour and bonded labour should be stopped and all workers should be brought under the State-assisted or insurance-based social security umbrella.

In her foreword to the HDR, the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, has noted that development objectives are being defined not just in terms of increase in the GDP or per capita income, but also in terms of enhancement of human well-being. The concept of human development focusses on the actual well-being of the people in terms of indicators such as attainment of education, health, life expectancy, access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities.

Apart from the State Planning Commission, the UNDP and a team of officials from the State administration (who have been deeply involved in many of these sectors) have worked on the report. It is now for the State Government to come up with practical plans to achieve the targets.

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