Kerala 2005 - of Planning Commission

CHAPTER 1
Kerala's Development Experience
AN OVERVIEW AND PROCESSES THAT SHAPED IT
1. Introduction
This chapter attempts an overview of Kerala’s development experience,
briefly touching upon some of the historical processes that shaped it,
explores the varied explanations and addresses some of the critical
aspects of the current growth process. Kerala’s achievements may
be viewed as the outcome of the interplay of a multiplicity of factors
rather than as owing to a specific causal factor. Nevertheless, the Kerala
experience throws up issues that may be expected to inform policymakers
elsewhere in their endeavour to achieve human development
goals within the constraints set by modest economic expansion. A central
feature of Kerala’s development experience is the role of education.
It has steadily evolved and continues to evolve from literacy to school
education and to adult education, spreading across the breadth and length
of Kerala, to the poor and the non-poor, to all castes, including the former
outcastes, and to not only men but also women.
A highlight of Kerala’s development experience has been the rapid reduction
in intra-State disparities and gender-differentials in most indicators of human
development. It must, however, be emphasised that gender equality in
education and health in Kerala has not led to the elimination of female
disadvantage in social and economic roles. While literacy and education
have spread across different social groups, with even the hierarchically lower
castes being much ahead of their counterparts in the rest of the country, they
are substantially behind the rest of the Keralite population in terms of some
indicators of human development.