Kerala 2005 - of Planning Commission

CHAPTER 5
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
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requires high levels of human development, with the possibility of regions
becoming permanent laggards otherwise.
Human development affects per capita income growth via population growth
also. The demographic dividend arising out of demographic transition
also extends to the supply of labour force, with a shift in the working age
population. The huge bulge in the working age population in the second
phase of age structural transition has the potential to act as an engine of
growth. Moreover, fertility decline apart from raising per capita incomes also
presents the possibility of better quality of children, with respect to education
and health along with increase in female labour force participation. However,
these cumulative effects get manifested only in the long run.
It should be noted that these demographic specificities of Kerala, with the
role of out-migration and remittances as both the consequence of human
development and the cause of growth, and education as a crucial background
feature of the growth process define a congruence of the processes of
human development and economic growth. At the same time, Kerala
presents certain specificities that suggest the other side of the congruence,
a conflict between the two processes. This conflict, in turn, is defined in
terms of some possibly inhibiting influence, which certain categories of
infrastructure provisioning, such as banking (low credit-deposit ratio), power
(shortage) and public sanitation, along with its poor quality might have on
the prospects of growth.
In this chapter, an attempt is made to analyse these aspects of the
congruence of, and conflict between, the processes of human development
and economic growth.