Gujarat slips to 15th rank among 20 states in child development index; Chhattisgarh, Assam, Odisha "perform" better

In an important exposure, Gujarat, touted till recently by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the “model” state for others to follow, has been ranked No 15 among 20 major Indian states in child development index (CDI). The ranking has been calculated for 2013-14 by two top economists Reetika Khera and Jean Dreze on the basis of the Government of India’s recently released summary findings of the Rapid Survey On Children 2013-14 (RSOC).

Both Khera and Dreze are development economists. While Khera teaches at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, Dreze is a visiting professor at the Department of Economics at Ranchi University. Both are known for their closeness to Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen’s school of thought, which believes in a development model in which combines economic freedom, social protection and democracy.
The new ranking suggests that Gujarat slipped by a point, from No 14 in 2005-06, when the third National Family Health Survey (NFHS) was carried out. The economists’ calculation also shows that while Gujarat’s CDI was 0.561 on a scale of 1 in 2005-06, which was above the national average (0.502), in 2013-14 it was 0.484, which is below the national average of 0.530.
The state, which ranked No 1 both in 2005-06 and in 2013-14, was Kerala. This followed by Tamil Nadu in 2005-06 and Himachal Pradesh in 2013-14. The worst performer in 2005-06 was Bihar, which ranked second from bottom in 2013-14, even though it witnessed considerable progress – from the CDI of 0.070 to 0.294 over the eight years. Uttar Pradesh ranked last in 2013-14 with a CDI of 0.144, down from 0.333 eight years earlier.
What is particularly significant is that it is not just the “developed” states, which score much better than Gujarat in the 2013-14 CDI – such as Himachal Pradesh (0.866), Tamil Nadu (0.863), Punjab (0.789), Maharashtra (0.769), Andhra Pradesh (0.762) and Karnataka (0.759). Even the “poorer” states such as Chhattisgarh, Assam and Odisha performed better than Gujarat with a CDI score of 0.616, 0.553, and 0.525 respectively.

The CDI has been worked on the basis of taking into account four different categories – proportion of children aged 12-23 months who are fully immunized, female literacy rate in the age-group 10-14, proportion of births preceded by health checkup, and proportion of children below age 5 who are not underweight.

The two scholars comment, despite all this, there have been “budget cuts”, which “threaten to undermine child nutrition programmes”, adding, “The ranking is quite similar in both years and its basic features are familiar. At the top of the list come Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu – states that might be called "supermodels" if Gujarat were a model, which it is not.”
“Predictably”, they point out, the “lagging states” include the “undivided Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.” Yet, there are “some important contrasts”, with Chhattisgarh “detaching itself from the rest as far as child development is concerned”, ranking “above the all-India average, and of course above Gujarat.”
Though Bihar is “still close to the bottom”, the scholars comment, “In absolute terms, it has progressed a great deal (from an abysmally low base) between 2005-6 and 2013-14. The proportion of births preceded by an ante-natal checkup in Bihar shot up from 34 per cent in 2005-6 to 85 per cent in 2013-14 – the largest improvement among all major states by a long margin. Similarly, the proportion of children fully immunised jumped from 33 per cent to 60 per cent.”

Comments

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Civil Aviation Minister.

Global NGO slams India for media clampdown during conflict, downplays Pakistan

A global civil rights group, Civicus has taken strong exception to how critical commentaries during the “recent conflict” with Pakistan were censored in India, with journalists getting “targeted”. I have no quarrel with the Civicus view, as the facts mentioned in it are all true.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

From SECI CMD to #OpenToWork: Gujarat cadre ex-IAS RP Gupta’s curious LinkedIn journey

Recently, I wrote a blog on retired Gujarat cadre IAS bureaucrat RP Gupta, with whom I used to interact during my Gandhinagar Sachivalaya days as the Times of India man. Written in the backdrop of the Government of India controversially easing him out of his position as CMD of the PSU Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a special purpose vehicle to promote solar energy, the title of the blog — "RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?" — is self-explanatory about the blog’s contents.

Search This Blog