Thread by @mknid

Thread: Some #Kerala stats. Just a glimpse of where it stands in rel to the rest, for those who are riling against its "netas". Kerala does not have the kind of indignity and poverty that mark several Indian states. Instead, it is often compared with developed countries. Why?

Bcoz Kerala is characterised by high literacy, incomes and expanded individual choices.

Its literacy rate is 93.91%, among the highest rates in India. Average schooling in Kerala is eight to nine years, against four in the rest of India.

In the realm of demographic transition, it will take the rest of India at least 30 years to catch up with its average demographic statistics.

Govt estimates say only six out of 1,000 children in Kerala die before they reach the age of one compared to 41 across India, and its average number of children per family is below two which is seen as a direct consequence of female literacy.

A health care facility is available within every 2-5km, many of them run and subsidised by the state, and average life expectancy is 75 years, 11 years ahead of the rest of India.

The state has one of the highest per-capita incomes among Indian states. If you are an unskilled rural labourer, it has the highest.

It has several, nearly universal, welfare measures such as highly subsidized, if not free, food grains, medical insurance, meals and uniforms in schools, and so on.

Kerala’s sanitation drive began much before Swacch Bharat became fashionable. Close to 95% of its households have toilets, as per 2011 census, while close to half of India doesn’t have them.

Kerala was the first among India’s populous states to officially claim itself "open defecation free", after building about 200,000 toilets at a cost of over Rs.400 crore. It is also a state that has officially declared itself as fully electrified.

Its Ernakulam district was also the country’s first fully literate district—all thanks to the continuous literacy drives, in 1980s and 90s.

If you keep Puducherry, a small Union territory of just four districts, out of the basket, Kerala is the only state to have more women than men. The sex ratio of women to men is a creditable 1.08, the highest in India.

If you keep Puducherry, a small Union territory of just four districts, out of the basket, Kerala is the only state to have more women than men. The sex ratio of women to men is a creditable 1.08, the highest in India.

It also ranks first in life expectancy (74 years) and in women’s education (over 90% against a national average of 65.46%), which are some of the most basic indicators of the quality of life in a country.

While India’s central bank and the Union government struggle to bring banking services to all corners of the country, every family in Kerala had a bank account as early as 2007.

Religiously diverse, yet strong associational form of civic life. No riot in about a century until early 21st cent. Calicut less likely a site of Hindu-Muslim violence than Aligarh, despite sharing almost same demographics. Untouchability of lower castes more or less extinguished

Why is Kerala so different? Writer and historian Ramachandra Guha attempted an answer for exactly this question in his book India After Gandhi. The below is the conclusion he reached:

“It had a history of progressive Maharajas and missionaries, and of major social movements oriented around both caste and class. These reforming traditions were picked up by the first communist administration in 1957-59, and renewed further in the early seventies.

when the state was ruled by a CPI (Communist Party of India)-Congress alliance... government transferred large accounts of land from absentee owners to cultivating tenants and passed a new Agriculture Workers Act to enhance the wages and living conditions of the landless.

Although these reforms fell short of what was demanded by the radical intellectuals they were much in advance of what was on offer elsewhere, furthering Kerala’s reputation as, if not exactly egalitarian, certainly the least unjust state in India”.

All of these are taken from my earlier stories, appeared in mint previously. Gdnt