Kerala’s Development Experience: a Search for a Micro Response to a Macro Process

?Keralas information experience a search for a micro chemical reaction to a large surgical procedure abstract The understructure of ripening, in the sense of achieving mankind good has always been there since the advent of human society, only with variable understanding, emphasis, and implications. It is seen as a process, requiring constant rejoinder and constant solutions and also as a result of human action, only through which, reorientation of any schooling process becomes possible (Varma, 198934).The past decades have seen a series of organic evolution paradigms, involving progressive modifications, towards achieving the human good, but the results have been exceedingly disappointing and distressing, with naked manifestation and a stark reality of the fundamental riches and the extreme poverty existing side by side. In fact, most of the suppuration approaches in the post-colonial era have contributed not only to the creation and perpetuation of such a divide bu t also in widening it endlessly. Indias macro development experience is an apt illustration of such a scenario.Keralas development experience has to be understood only in the context of the development experience of the country as a whole. Keralas development experience search for a micro response to a macro process The concept of development, in the sense of achieving human good has always been there since the advent of human society, only with varying understanding, emphasis, and implications. It is seen as a process, requiring constant response and continuous solutions and also as a result of human action, only through which, reorientation of any development process becomes possible (Varma, 198934).The past decades have seen a series of development paradigms, involving progressive modifications, towards achieving the human good, but the results have been highly disappointing and distressing, with naked manifestation and a stark reality of the extreme riches and the extreme povert y existing side by side. In fact, most of the development approaches in the post-colonial era have contributed not only to the creation and perpetuation of such a divide but also in widening it endlessly. Indias macro development experience is an apt illustration of such a scenario.Keralas development experience has to be understood only in the context of the development experience of the country as a whole. indias development impact In the post-colonial Independent India, which envisaged an advanced, prosperous, democratic, classless and fair(a) society as implied in its constitutional proclamation of a amicableist pattern of development, eradication of poverty became unitary of the prime targets of most of the early development initiatives. However, even after five decades of Indias independence, in smart of intensive development efforts, the result has not been much different.True, India has got an impeccable record of achievements to its credit. India has achieved a literac y rate of preceding(pre titular) fifty percent from a just 16 percent at the time of Independence. From a state of dependency for fodder, it has not only achieved a self-sufficiency but also has developed an export capacity in food production. The economical reforms in recent days and the process of globalisation have accelerated Indias economic capability in any direction including industrial growth.With its large technological and professional man-power, with regard to nuclear, space and computer capabilities, India is fast emerging as a global power. Though these are commendable achievements, the overall picture is nowhere near the targets and far from satisfaction. In spite of India be one of the highest food producing countries in the world, one out of every two children in India is said to be malnourished. In the land of numerous rivers, safe drinking water seems to be still a pipe-dream for many.The health record is even much frightening as India is still the highest in the world, in the number of TB patients, malarial deaths, blind deal, HIV positive cases, occupational casualties, Hepatitis B patients and infant death rate rates. The constitutional injunction to provide free compulsory education to all children upto the age of 14 by 1960 is far from realisation. In fact, with the tripling of our people since Independence, the analphabetism rate being well above 40 percent, the number of illiterates has almost exceeded the total population of India at the time of Independence.Moreover, even among the literates, for many, education means just identifying letters and in most of the villages, many literate do not even seem to manage that. There is a vast child drudge force of 44 million. Above 70 million children are distant schools. There is a lodgment shortage of over 30 million and the registered business sector seekers are inching towards 40 million. Those who are below poverty line being anywhere between 25 and 40 percent, more than 3 00 million in absolute figures, India has the largest concentration of poor people in the world (Outlook, 19 Oct. 998). The human development indices are deplorably low, placing India at the 126th position, far below many countries in East, Southeast and West Asia and Africa that became Independence much later than India did. The continuing population explosion only indicates that the educational, health and hearty status of women is far from satisfaction. naughty fertility and mortality rates, illiteracy, and school dropouts especially of the girl child have also contributed to this state of affairs.Likewise, the situation concerning preventive, public and primary health, drinking water, sewage, and sanitation and housing is far from satisfactory. Unemployment continues to be a nagging problem obscuring a clear solution. Growing urbanisation is also contributing to innumerable problems for want of clear location and readying. Environmental degradation, deforestation, and land a ppropriation continue to pose serious threats to the healthy development scenario and harshly affect the weaker sections, the most.Indias development impact only upraise that the development initiatives of the past decades, meant for the uplift of the deprived sections have miserably failed, with the result of increasing poverty, inequality and ecological imbalance. Whatever efforts that have been adopted in delivery about a desirable development paradigm, a relatively contended human existence with fulfilment of basic human needs and protection of basic human rights have also proved to be still a far-flung reality.All these have only underlined the lopsided orientation and misplaced priorities of the past development paradigms and also the necessity for rethinking development. Today, development as human good has come to imply equality and a dignified human existence for every individual, disregarding of caste, religion, race, or culture. Haq (199616) identifies equity, sustaina bility, productivity, and commitment as four essential components in the human development paradigm.It involves searching for the roots, giving due recognition to every peoples dignity and existence, and evolving a genuine and collective participation of the people at the micro level development preparation and implementation without neglecting the the macro-level development process. Such a development perspective necessitates a thorough revamping of the past development orientations and initiation of a fresh thrust from bottom upwards in every sense, by decentralising the development blueprintning and democratic institutions. It would be a process of real democratisation and a return to nature, to the people, and to the grassroots.In short, there should be a right identification of what is the core and what is the periphery (Gregory, 20007). Keralas development experience It is in this context that Keralas development experience assumes significance. Kerala has been a pioneering state in many revolutionary social transformations and successful development initiatives, whether it be in implementing the land reforms or in achieving the development parameters of the WHO, or in the total literacy ply that brought the credit of becoming the first totally literate state in the country.In the quality of life indicators, Keralas achievement is comparable only to the highly developed nations but within a limited economic development that is far below that of the nations average. Thus, in terms of 1993 figures, in spite of having a low per capita GNP of just about $180, far below than even the all India average of $300, Kerala could achieve and maintain an adult literacy rate of 91 per cent as against 51 per cent for all India life expectancy of 73 years for males and 79 years for females as against 55 and 54 years respectively for all India infant mortality rate at 13 as against 24 for all India nd the birth rate at 17 as against 25 for all India all comparable to the advanced nations. Such a high material quality of life indicators coinciding with low per capita income, both(prenominal) distributed across nearly the entire population of Kerala, with a set of wealth and resources redistribution programmes and high levels of political participation and activism among the ordinary people, have earned for the state a unique place in the development thinking.This has also led to the emergence of a Kerala Model of development that has been widely appreciated and recommended by the economists and another(prenominal) social scientists to be worthy of emulation by the developing world, before questions arose and criticisms unleashed over the sustainable nature of the nonplus. The Crisis of the Kerala model had become more apparent with the Models failures and shortcomings that were threatening its sustainability.Some of these included the following The slow growth of Keralas SDP Increasing stagnancy of agricultural production and the dependency on and the vulnerability to outside sources for the major food items including rice Down-sliding of the traditional industries such as coir, cashew and handloom mainly due to the price escalation for raw materials and cut-throat competitions Sluggish and even negative industrial growthAlarming situation of unemployment Series of fiscal crisis threatening to undermine many of the Kerala Model redistribution programmes More than 15 per cent of the states population being the outliers of the Model Acute environmental crisis, involving serious repercussions, especially in the context of stagnant economy, high population density and intense land-use.All the above failures and shortcomings of the Kerala model had become vastly identified and highly intensified in the context of globalisation, a macro process that has swept the whole world, including the developed and the developing nations alike, in the nineties and continue to change the developing face of the world economy and life Peop les Palnning Keralas Answer to a failed model and the process of Glabalisation The idea of development from bottom upwards with a decentralised system of planning is not something totally new.In Gandhijis vision of Poorna Swaraj, every village has to become a body politic in which every individual enjoys total freedom. In his social paradigm, every individual should become the core, whereby the society is constructed as a vast oceanic circle, progressing from the individual to the family, from the family to the village, from the village to the state and from the state to the nation and so on. This is possible only when the villages are reinvented to become a republic of its own, recreating the sense of village solidarity, and making every member of the village a partner in the development mission.Only such an approach, which enables every human being to realise that they are only a part of nature, would be significant and sustainable. Though the slogan of Gram Raj and the desirabi lity of a decentralised system of planning has been as old as the freedom movement, the country had to wait till 1993, when the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments were enacted, for a determined effort towards a genuine process f decentralisation. In line with these amendments, The Kerala Panchayat Act had been passed and came into effect since 23 April 1994. Nevertheless, the provision of a constitutional and legislative framework alone need not date its adaptation unless there is a political will and commitment on the part of the state governments, to such a system of administration and planning as it requires a total restructuring of the system.The democratisation of the planning process involved certain necessary conditions such as the devolution of powers, responsibilities and resources as well as the completing measures on the part of the government, but not sufficient to ensure its success unless accompanied by an intensive peoples campaign in hostelry to motivate and empower the local self governments to take up the new challenges.Being conscious of such conditions, the state of Kerala, in August 1996, started the new audition of Peoples Planning through Peoples Campaign not only to ensure an informed participation of the people, going beyond their nominal participation (Isaac and Harilal, 1999492-5) but also to help them make informed choices (Franke and Chasin, 1999 139). In a world of globalisation and economic liberalisation, there emerges a political and economic structure that only favours models based on private accumulation and growing inequality over Keralas emphasis on public services and egalitarian ideals.Only in such a context, emerges Keralas answer to the search for a modernistic Model in the form of a micro planning called Peoples Planning through Peoples Campaign, based on decentralisation and high levels of local participation, both as a response to the failure of the old model and as a challenge to the hostile world of inter national capitalism, vowing to bring a meaningful environmental preservation and empower the grassroots (Franke and Chasin, 1999118-133).Today, Kerala is leading the nation through Peoples Planning, which essentially dwells on the devolution of power to the grass roots, thereby initiating another social revolution of the sorts, in the development paradigm. It is believed that a success in this unique experiment would definitely make development to be truly sustainable and meaningful to the people and would redefine the entire life and polity. According to Mencher, the Indian villages are still populated with most weaker sections who hardly gain anything from most of the development programmes (1978 10).The peoples planning being different in its orientation and approach, is naturally expected to reach out to the least of the grass-roots at the micro-level governance and empower them to plan out the basic livelihood systems by themselves and gain the capacity to ensure its sustainabi lity and climb up the ladder of dignified social existence together with other fellow citizens. conclusion Towareds a sustainable Model of Developmet As the world is under the sweep of globalisation, no nation or state can take hold away from its grip or sway.Living in an age of information that has created an image of a global village, the individual, regional and national identities are at stake, insistent for independence and freedom. The very survival of the fittest itself is at stake, which can be overcome only if there are proper ways and means to identify ones strengths, potentials and indigenous resources and utilise the same for asserting ones identity at different levels as well as for their respective survival and also contribute to the benefit of the mankind beyond their respective boundaries.It is here that the micro-level peoples planning could combat the negative forces in the macro process of globalisation. In this context, peoples planning of Keralas development experience provides an alternative model of a sorts in development. The success of the emerging model, however, depends on the tip of its independent approach, free from all sorts of political overtones and identities, a genuine sense of belongingness and solidarity and collective search for strengths and a common commitment for the greater cause of a genuine development. References Franke R. W. nd B. H. Chasin. 1999. Is the Kerala Model Sustainable. In M. A. Oommen. (Ed. ). Rethinking Development Keralas Development Experience. Vol. 2. New Delhi Institute of Social Sciences & Concept. Gregory S. 2000. Rural Social Change, Social Equity, and Sustainable Development. In Mukhopadyay, S D and S Choudhury. (Ed. ). Social Transformation and Rural Sector. Visva-Bharathi Department of Agricultural Extension, Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Statistics Haq, Mahbub ul. 1996. Reflections on Human Development. Delhi Oxford University Press. Isaac, T. M. Thomas. and K.N. Harilal. 1999. democratisation of the Planning Process Experience of Peoples Campaign in Kerala. In M. A. Oommen. (Ed. ). Rethinking Development Keralas Development Experience. Vol. 2. New Delhi Institute of Social Sciences & Concept. Mencher, J. P. market-gardening and Social Structure in Tamil Nadu Past Origin, Present Transformation and Future Prospects. New Delhi Allied. Varma, S. P. 1989. Models of Development Search for Alternatives. In Iqbal Narain. (Ed. ). Development, Politics and Social Theory. New Delhi Sterling. ****************************************