Significant growth in Telangana HDI rank

Hyderabad: The Centre for Economic Social Studies had mentioned in its Human Development Report-2017 for Telangana State that making Telangana state a 31-district state from a 10-district state will help the government run a more effective administration. The Centre for Economic Social Studies had mentioned in its Human Development Report-2017 for Telangana State that making Telangana state a 31-district state from a 10-district state will help the government run a more effective administration.

Gujarat Central University Chancellor Professor Y.K. Alagh has released this publication in the programe conducted at the Centre for Economic Studies (CESS) auditorium, Begumpet, on Friday.

The report also stated that the government should formulate policies to reduce the levels of inequalities in human development across social groups, gender differences between rural and urban areas and across districts. Telangana was ranked 10th in the Human Development Index (HDI) in 2011-12 among all 21 major states in India.With a significant improvement over its previous rank of 13 in 2004-05; its index was higher than the national average in 2011-12.

Also, the gap between the HDI of the OCs and STs had narrowed between 2002-04 and 2007-8. Rural-urban inequalities have also declined but the HDIs of all social groups were higher in urban areas than in rural areas at both points of time. Gender differentials in HDI have also come down in all districts and for all the components of HDI like income, education and health, excluding Adilabad district.

The districts with a lower HDI in 2004-05 had improved their HDI status faster compared to the other districts by 2011-12, which reflects the declining inequalities in HDI across the districts. Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy remained the top districts while Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar and Medak remained the lowest districts in Human Development in both periods.

When it comes to financing human development, the allocation of funds has not been prioritised properly across the districts. The report said that allocation of funds should be based on a specific decentralised method, which becomes even more crucial in view of recent organisations of districts into 31.

Districts with lower but inclusive growth have also achieved higher improvements in human development, when their economic growth has been achieved through growth in labour productivity; hence more funds need to be allocated to improve the education and health status for increasing labour productivity.

The report also said that there has been a big increase in the enrolment of children in schools; however, the learning outcomes of children in government schools have been poor, as compared to private schools. The responses of the children about the attitude of the teachers in terms of punctuality, correcting homework and watching over the children as well as the lack of infrastructure highlight the inefficiencies in the educational system.

The deprivation of natural resources across the districts in the state due to the lack of groundwater, lower forest cover and high moisture, stress less availability of safe drinking water and poor indoor sanitation, all these issues should be addressed by the government to improve the human development in a sustainable manner.

The recent budget of Telangana which made contributions to the backward castes, scheduled castes, tribes and minorities will be a strong contribution to inclusive growth. Initiatives like Mission Kakatiya, Haritha Haram, and Mission Bhageeratha for improving the forest cover and supply of drinking water will lead to sustained growth and improvements in human development.

The decentralized new social framework sustainable development model of government of Telangana state is radically different from the development model pursued in the undivided state. However the state has to establish an official unit for monitoring human development.