Counterview.in

A recent study suggests that healthcare facilities in Gujarat’s urban slums, as in the rest of India, are worse than those the rural areas. Though the study is confined to one of Gujarat’s richest districts, Anand, which has lately considerable urbanization, it is indicative of the fact that there is a complete failure on the part of the officialdom to provide basic healthcare facilities to the deprived sections of population, who come from the rural areas and settle down in slums in the hope of eking out a better livelihood. Titled “Urban slums in Gujarat Newborn Care Practices and Health Seeking Behavior in Urban Slums and Villages of Anand, Gujarat”, the study was jointly carried out by Archana S Nimbarkar and Vivek V Shukla from the Department of Pediatrics, Pramukhswami Medical College, Karamsad, and Ajay G Pathak and Somashekhar M Nimbalkar from the Central Research Services, Charutar Arogya Mandal, Karamsad, Anand district. A major conclusion of the study is that “infant and neo...

A recent study, “Bhil Migration to South Gujarat”, coordinated by Rahul Banerjee and sponsored by two Madhya Pradesh-based NGOs, Dhas Gramin Vikas Kendra and Khet Mazdoor Chetna Sangath, has revealed “solid evidence of the sorry situation of the Bhil tribal migrants in South Gujarat and especially the women and the neglect of their rights by the governments of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh”. In fact, the economic evaluation of the tribals, who mainly hail from Madhya Pradesh, “shows that despite the appalling working and living conditions the migrants are able to take back with them a net income which would not be possible if they stayed back and this is why there is so much migration”. The study suggests how socially insecure these tribals are by giving a symbolic example. Chovria Pirla, a Bhilala tribal resident of Darkali Village in Sondwa Block of Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh fell from the fifth storey of a building under construction in Navsari town in...

  In a sharp about-turn, the United Nations Children's Fund, or Unicef, has changed its Gujarat profile following a www.counterview.net report, which had highlighted how the top UN body had criticised the state's social sector indicators, providing detailed figures on health, education and malnutrition. The new  profile on Gujarat , which it has put on the web, does underline that Gujarat has "miles to cover in ensuring that the economic growth trasnlates into improved human development", but removes all the negative figures which had shown Gujarat social sector in poor light.

De-commanded A right to information (RTI) application has revealed that the Gujarat government has acquired and handed over a whopping 81.95 crore square metres of land to top industrial houses, most of it dirt cheap, over the last one decade. It also revealed that the price at which the land -- which belonged to farmers, or was common village gochal land meant for cattle -- varied between a mere Re 1 to Rs 900, depending on the area, but in every case much less than the prevailing market rate.

  The Planning Commission of India’s new report put out in July 2013, “Poverty Estimates 2011-12”, which based on the National Sample Survey’s “Key Indicators of Employment and Unemployment in India, 2011-12”, published in spring 2013, has gone a long way to disprove state government propaganda that Gujarat’s gharib kalyan melas, held last year ahead of the state assembly elections, suggested a “model for other states to follow for reducing poverty”. A counterview.org analysis of comparison between 20 major states suggests that things have not been as rosy in Gujarat, as has been suggested. There is no doubt that, as data suggest, after 2004-05, there has been acceleration in the rate of poverty reduction. But this is true of the entire country, and not special to Gujarat.

  Latest Planning Commission estimates suggest a major setback to Gujarat as far as poverty reduction is concerned. If between 2004 and 2010, Gujarat witnessed 8.6 per cent reduction in poverty, which was higher than the national average of 7.4 per cent, between 2010 and 2012 not only the percentage of poverty reduction come down to 6.4 per cent, it was below the national average of 7.9 per cent, too. Worse, if during 2004-10 Gujarat’s poverty reduction rate was higher than in as many as eight states, the number of states which saw a higher poverty reduction in the 2010-12 phase went up to 10 out of 20 major states.

Top Gujarat-based social scientist, Prof Ghanshyam Shah, has accused the Gujarat government of "overtly and covertly undermined the existing labour laws which provide some protection to workers" in order to invite investments in Gujarat. "The state government has amended labour legislations to provide freedom to industry to employ labour on contract basis", he said, adding, the result is, "Ahmedabad has the lowest labour costs among the major cities in India, with labour costs less than 50 per cent of those in Delhi and 40 per cent below those in Pune."