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Gujarat financial inclusion index slips, most districts perform better than national average

By Rajiv Shah  Despite wide talk of Gujarat being No 1 in things financial, top rating agency Cisil has found that the state is failing to improve upon its financial inclusion index compared to most of India.  A new report by the top consulting firm, Crisil, has revealed that the financial inclusion index, called Inclusix – a concept it worked out in alliance with the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, to find out how deep is financial penetration among larger sections of population – has revealed that Gujarat has failed to improve its performance over the last four years in providing the three critical parameters of banking services, viz. branch penetration, deposit penetration, and credit penetration. Titled “Crisil Inclusix: An Index to Measure India’s Progress on Financial Inclusion”, this is the second report in a year brought out by India’s authoritative consulting firm, which is supported by the well-known US rating agency, Standard & Poor. Dated January 2014, the rep

New NSS report points to poor sanitary conditions in rural Gujarat

New National Sample Survey report points towards prevalence of poor sanitary conditions in rural Gujarat By Rajiv Shah  Rural Gujarat is known to have poor malnutrition levels. Malnutrition and sanitation are both interrelated. A new National Sample Survey Organization report has suggested that the state’s performance in providing sanitation to its rural population is not up to the mark.  In a major revelation, the new National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) report, “Key Indicators of Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Condition in India”, released in December 2013, has found that Gujarat’s performance in providing sanitary and hygienic conditions to its rural population is not progressing well enough. In fact, if the data are indication, Gujarat’s performance on this score cannot be said to considered “vibrant” in any sense. The NSSO survey data suggest that Gujarat is an average performer, especially on issues related with sanitation. If the report is to be believed,

Gujarat’s urban slum policy fails to make impact on dwellers’ living condition

By Rajiv Shah  The latest National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report, “Key Indicators of Urban Slums in India”, released in December 2013 and based on survey the top statistical body carried out in the second half of 2012, has once again suggested that Gujarat’s slums are one of the worst in India insofar as providing basic infrastructural facilities are concerned. Rajiv Shah takes a closer look at the report: While Gujarat’s slums, numbering 2,923 (both notified and non-notified), form 8.72 per cent of all slums in the country (33,510), the three states with higher number of slums than Gujarat are Maharashtra (7,723), Andhra Pradesh (3,956) and West Bengal (3957). Despite a relatively higher number, what is particularly appalling is, Gujarat slums fail to score better than most states whether it is pucca houses, tapped water, electricity, pucca roads, latrines, drainage, or garbage disposal. While the survey results do not show a complete all-India picture, as results of only

Official Gujarat negligence in implementing RTE: Refusal to build school despite HC order

By Rajiv Shah  NGO Sahyog Charitable Trust has found the hard way how Gujarat’s authorities refuse to implement the right to education (RTE) Act unless judicial intervention is sought. How negligent Gujarat authorities have been towards implementing the RTE Act was revealed by the manner in which they have treated the Gujarat High Court order of February 9, 2012, in which the Municipal School Board, on the basis of the affidavit it filed, was directed to construct a new school in Vatva area within two years’ time, where poor and neglected children could study. The order had said, till the school began, the children should get the benefit of Special Training Programme Centre, where they had been provided an alternative. So far, the board has not begun the construction work of the new school, which is proposed to be situated about 1.4 km away from the slum area. While the deadline is to expire in February 2014, for all practical purposes, non-implementation of the order should mean, the

5-yr-old report predicted displacement around Narmada dam despite PESA

By Rajiv Shah  Though prepared by Bangalore-based tourism NGO Equations in 2008, the five-year-old report, “Public Purpose?”, suggests how relevant its observations are even today at a time the entire Kevadia Colony, next to the Narmada dam, alongside the surrounding rural areas, are being proposed as a major tourism site in Gujarat. The report had predicted that the tourism project would dispossess tribals of 51 plus villages of their land, even as pointing towards how the project is being promoted in complete violation of the laws which make tribal self-rule mandatory in tribal-dominated areas.  What makes the Equations report, “Public Purposes?”, particularly intriguing is that the tourism project around the Narmada dam is today in the eye of storm, five year after Equations, the tourism NGO, brought it out. It is being developed as part of the Gujarat government decision to build world’s highest statue, Statue of Unity, in the memory of Sardar Patel. Already, work for the project h

Under 5 mortality: Gujarat’s performance worst among rich states, says study

By Rajiv Shah  A new study, carried out by a group of scholars led by Prof Usha Ram of the Centre for Global Health Research, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto, “Neonatal, 159 month, and under-5 mortality in 597 Indian districts, 2001 to 2012: estimates from national demographic and mortality surveys”, has found that Gujarat’s performance in achieving the millennium development goal (MDG) for bringing down mortality rate of under-five children has been the poorest among the group of 11 rich Indian states. A complete study of all Indian states and their districts, the big richer states focused are – Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karantaka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh. The scholars – who include Prabhat Jha, Faujdar Ram, Kaushalendra Kumar, Shally Awasthi, Anita Shet, Joy Pader, Stella Nansukusa and Rajesh Kumar – have found that in Gujarat, in 2012, the under-five mortality

Agricultural land in Dholera SIR proposed to be reduced from 47 to 12%

By Rajiv Shah  The proposed Dholera special investment region is likely to lead to large-scale changes in livelihood patterns, as and when the plan to convert the area into an industrial-urban hub succeeds. The “Draft Environmental Impact Assessment of Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) In Gujarat” – prepared for the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation Ltd by the Senes Consultants India Pvt Ltd for environmental public hearing on January 3, 2014 – has suggested that there will be large-scale impact on the livelihood patter in the “sparsely populated” 930 sq km area, consisting of 22 villages, which will form the DSIR, and which is proposed to be converted into a modern industrial urban township over a period of three decades. The report says, “As per the land use/ land cover (LU/LC) studies carried out for Dholera SIR, highest LU/LC class is agriculture land, constituting 47.46 per cent of the study area, comprising of fallow land (39.97 per cent) or cropland

Dream city Dholera SIR may become even more flood prone due to urbanisation

By Rajiv Shah  The new environment impact assessment report proposed for the development of Dholera special investment region, being planned as a “dream city” by the Gujarat government, admits that the area where the new industrial township is being planned is flat, low lying and is prone to flood, and things may aggravate in case of urbanization.  The new draft report, “Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) in Gujarat”, prepared by SENES Consultants India Pvt Ltd, for the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation, New Delhi, for environmental public hearing slated on January 3, 2013, has identified “flooding from inundation by the sea and from seasonal monsoon rains” as one of two most important problems to be reckoned with while developing the area. The other problem is that of seismicity. The DSIR is to be developed south of Ahmedabad city on a 900 square kilometer area as a modern industrial township with a population of 20

Health insurance? Poor patients in Gujarat forced to make cash payments

By Rajiv Shah  Despite being covered by a Government of India health insurance scheme, poor families in Gujarat are made to make cash payment for hospitalisation, both in private and public hospitals. A recent research paper, “Promoting universal financial protection: evidence from the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) in Gujarat, India”, by a group of four researchers – Narayanan Devadasan, Tanya Seshadri (both from Institute of Public Health, Bangalore), Mayur Trivedi (Indian Institute of Public Health, Sardar Patel Institute Campus, Ahmedabad) and Bart Criel (Department of Public Health, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium) – has said that despite the health insurance scheme to the below poverty line (BPL) families, in majority of cases health expenditure is met through out-of-pocket (OOP) payments at the time of illness. The study suggests, this is happening despite the fact that, to protect poor families, the Government of India launched the national health insura

Poor net enrollment ratio pulls down Gujarat’s primary education index

By Rajiv Shah  Gujarat’s education development index (EDI) has slipped both in lower primary and upper primary level because of the failure to address human resource issues.  The latest flash statistics in “Elementary Education in India: Progress towards Universal Elementary Education”, a just-published report, has found that, despite the hype around Kanya Kelavni enrolment drive for ensuring cent per cent enrolment at the primary level, Gujarat’s ranking for both the lower primary (classes I to V) and the upper primary level (classes VI to VIII) have badly slipped. Put out in November 2013, the report has found that if the overall education development index (EDI) of Gujarat dropped from 9th in 2011-12 to 18th in 2012-13 among 35 Indian states and union territories, as for the lower primary level, the rank slipped from the 12th to the 28th position. The performance is slightly better for the upper primary level; however, here too Gujarat’s rank, which was 8th in 2011-12, slipped to

Gujarat ranks a poor 14th in women’s participation in industrial sector

By Rajiv Shah  Female participation in workplace is an important yardstick of women’s empowerment in society. The recent Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) survey, even while providing data on the economic health of industrial units separately for each state, simultaneously gives details of the working class employed in the factories. An analysis of the ASI data by Rajiv Shah suggests that participation of women in the organized industrial sector is one of the poorest in Gujarat. In fact, Gujarat ranks 14th in a list of selected 22 major states: The latest Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) report, based on a complete survey of India’s industrial establishments carried out between October 2011 and April 2012, has sought to bracket Gujarat with the socially backward states of India as far as women’s participation in the organized industrial labour force is concerned. Released in 2013, the report has suggested that, lately, there has been some acceleration in employment opportunities provi