For many critics of Narendra Modi, Gujarat has to do better than simply prosper. It is not enough that the State displays phenomenal improvement across the board and it is not enough that the State’s kaya-palat has been hailed as inspirational internationally. Any good news coming out of Modi’s Gujarat is waved off as propaganda and PR and reams of newsprint are devoted to ‘exposing’ the ‘mirage of development’. Most recently, Lyla Bavadam wrote something on those lines in The Hindu. We carried a response to it over here. But now, the CAG report on Integrated Child Development Scheme has shown that Gujarat has shown that Gujarat shows the most improvement in child malnutrition. Number-wise, Gujarat figures somewhere in the middle, (between Goa and Haryana, and at a considerably higher spot than Delhi). A detailed table is as below. Name of the state/UT (Status for 2005-06) Data provided by the Ministry (status as on) 31-March-2007 31-March-2011 Malnourished Severely Malnourished Malnourished Severely Malnourished Malnourished Severely Malnourished Andhra Pradesh 32.5 9.9 53.23 0.13 48.72 0.08 Arunachal Pradesh 32.5 11.1 9.13 0.01 2.00 0.00 Assam 36.4 11.4 40.12 1.4 31.32 0.46 Bihar 55.9 24.1 NA NA 82.12 25.94 Chhattisgarh 47.1 16.4 54.14 1.18 38.47 1.97 Goa 25.0 6.7 41.41 0.15 34.11 0.04 Gujarat 44.6 16.3 70.69 0.85 38.77 4.56 Haryana 39.6 14.2 45.34 0.11 42.95 0.05 Himachal Pradesh 36.5 11.4 38.86 0.15 34.24 0.06 Jammu & Kashmir 25.6 8.2 32.61 0.78 31.12 0.06 Jharkhand 56.5 26.1 47.36 1.74 40.00 0.7 Karnataka 37.6 12.8 53.39 0.31 39.5 2.84 Kerala 22.9 4.7 38.8 0.07 36.92 0.08 Madhya Pradesh 60.0 27.3 49.61 0.75 28.49 1.88 Maharashtra 37.0 11.9 45.47 0.21 23.32 2.61 Manipur 22.1 4.7 10.06 0.19 13.83 0.24 Meghalaya 48.8 27.7 36.74 0.14 29.13 0.18 Mizoram 19.9 5.4 22.67 0.48 23.26 0.20 Nagaland 25.2 7.1 13.79 0.31 8.36 0.07 Odisha 40.7 13.4 56.54 0.82 50.43 0.72 Punjab 24.9 8.0 35.36 0.37 33.63 0.05 Rajasthan 39.9 15.3 54.09 0.27 43.13 0.33 Sikkim 19.7 4.9 27.17 0.08 10.72 0.86 Tamil Nadu 29.8 6.4 39.1 0.04 35.22 0.02 Tripura 39.6 15.7 14.83 0.19 36.89 0.35 Uttar Pradesh 42.4 16.4 53.36 1.09 40.93 0.21 Uttarakhand 38.0 15.7 45.71 0.23 24.93 1.19 West Bengal 38.7 11.1 52.75 0.68 36.92 4.08 Delhi 26.1 8.7 54.36 0.07 49.91 0.03 All India 42.5 15.8 50.1 0.55 41.16 3.33 [percentage of malnourished children covers all malnourished children including severely malnourished] Source: CAG report What makes Gujarat stand out in this list is the amount of improvement it has registered on the malnutrition index. While on March 31, 2007, the State had a high 70.69 per cent malnourished children, the figure had gone down to 38.77 per cent in 2011, leaving the national average of 41.16 per cent behind. The CAG report states: There was substantial decrease in the malnourished children in six States (Gujarat, from 71 to 39 per cent); Karnataka (from 53 to 41 per cent); Maharashtra (from 45 to 23 per cent); Uttar Pradesh (from 53 to 41 per cent); Uttarakhand (from 46 to 25 per cent): and West Bengal (from 53 to 37 per cent). Perhaps, in the fullness of time, there might be some semblance of sanity when it comes to evaluating the Gujarat model. Narendra Modi himself never says he has built something perfect. If anything, his speeches are full of what more can be done to help his State reach even greater heights. Is it too much to ask for credit where it is due? One hopes not. -vijayendra mohanty
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 03:50:46 +0000