new internationalist
issue 241 - March 1993
KERALA is a poor state in a poor
country. Yet its people
have a quality of life that is better than the rest of India or
almost any other low-income state. In fact, the quality of
life in Kerala is closer to that in the West. But they have
achieved it in a most un-Western way.
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PEOPLE AND PLACE
 Kerala
is one of the most densely populated, culturally mixed and politically
unusual states in the world.
 It's the size
of Switzerland and supports a population of 29 million people. That's
747 people per square kilometre1 compared
with 234 in the UK, 160 in Switzerland, 26 in the US, 21 in Canada,
12 in Aotearoa/New Zealand and 2 in Australia.2
Of its population
60 per cent are Hindu, 20 per cent are Muslim and 20 per cent are Christian.
A small Jewish community of 22 people remains.
In 1957 Kerala
was the first state in the world to bring to power a communist government
via democratic elections rather than revolution.
Over 90 per cent
of people in Kerala own the land on which their home stands. Land ownership
is limited to eight hectares per family.3
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LITERACY AND EDUCATION
People in Kerala are more educated than in the rest of India and
all Low-Income Countries (LICs).
Kerala's literacy rate is higher than that of any Low-Income Country.
The only countries in the Third World to have higher literacy are Cuba,
Chile and Costa Rica.
30 per cent of
total state spending is on education.3
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LIFE AND HEALTH
People in Kerala live longer - thanks to better nutrition and state
health-care provision. Far fewer children die before they reach 12 months
of age.
Fair-price shops
and ration cards ensure that two-thirds of the subsidized basic foods
go to the poorest 30 per cent. And 99 per cent of Kerala's villages
have a fair-price shop within two kilometres.6
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POLITICS AND PENDULUMS
Electors tend to alternate their vote so that no party stays in power
for more than one term. Coalition politics is the norm.
OPPONENTS
Left Democratic
Front (LDF)
Led by the Communist Party Marxist (CPM), it includes other broadly
Left groups such as the Communist Party India (CPI), the Revolutionary
Socialist Party (RSP), the breakaway Congress(S) Party and the anti-caste
Janata Dal party. It held power from 1987 to 1991, losing to the United
Democratic Front.
United Democratic
Front (UDF)
A loose-knit coalition consisting of centrist groups and communal interests
led by the Congress(I) Party and including the Indian Union Muslim League
(IUML), the pro-caste National Democratic Party (NDP), and the pro-Christian
Kerala Congress (KC). Its term of office since June 1991 has been characterized
by fierce infighting.
Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP)
Seen as the Hindu fundamentalist party, neither the LDF or UDF are willing
to include it in their coalition.
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QUALITY AND ECONOMY
Kerala's quality of life is comparatively high.
But in conventional economic terms it is a poor state - lagging
behind the rest of India.
Kerala manages
to maintain high consumption and low productivity thanks to remittances
from workers in the Gulf which equal 20 to 25 per cent of the state
domestic product. Only two per cent of this is invested in commercial
ventures. Most of it is spent on land, houses, cars or jewellery.8,3
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WOMEN AND SOCIETY
The position of women is generally better than in other parts of
India or other Low-Income Countries - because they are better educated
and have fewer children.
94 per cent of primary- age girls and 99 per cent of primary-age boys
are in school.3
There are more
females than males enrolled in arts and sciences pre-degree, degree
and graduated courses - a total of 82,538 women and 73,516 men in 1990-1.1
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WORK AND RESOURCES
Coir (coconut fibre) accounts for 18 per cent of exports and supports
10 million people in Kerala.1
Major exports
include rubber, pepper, cardamom, ginger, coffee, tea, cashews.
In 1986 women
accounted for 28 per cent of Government employees and 36 per cent of
employees in organized economic entities.3
An estimated
150,000 Keralites are working in the Gulf. Many are skilled technicians
and medical staff.
Unemployment
is the highest in India, with an estimated four million job seekers.
63.8 per cent of educated job-seekers were unemployed in 1991.7,1
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1 Economic Review 1991,
Government of Kerala State Planning Board.
2 The Economist Book of Vital World Statistics, (Hutchinson
1990).
3 Politics, Women and Wellbeing, Robin Jeffrey (Macmillan
1992).
4 'Kerala Elections, 1991: Lessons and Non-Lessons', Thomas Isaac
and S Mohana Kumar, Economic and Political Weekly, 23 November
1991.
5 World Development Report 1992, World Bank.
6 Kerala: Radical Reform as Development in an Indian State,
Richard W Franke and Barbara H Chasin (Food First Books 1991).
7 Indian Express, 30 August 1992, quoting the Applied
Research Department of the State Government.
8 Kerala figure supplied by the Institute of Development Studies
in Trivandrum.
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