NOTE:
I am expecting a better answer than mine. Let someone from Kerala write it. But, here let me make an attempt from what I know about Kerala.
Kerala:
For decades now, Kerala has become a favourite state for students of development studies. Kerala stands ahead of all the states in the country on several criteria of Human development Index. Kerala is identified with a set of high material quality-of-life indicators, spread almost equally across the entire state.
It is also identified with high levels of political participation and activism with Congress and the Communists sharing power almost alternatively, which is also responsible for the development of the state, as each tries to better the other in implementing various development programmes. This shows a healthy version of electoral politics. Incidentally, Kerala was the first state to elect a non-Congress government in independent India. In 1957 the CPI defeated Congress in legislative assembly elections and E.M.S. Namboodiripad became the Chief Minister. In spite of being a multi-religious state, religion has been seldom used for electoral gains.
Health Indicators- Kerala & India −2009
In the state, the doctor-patient ratio of 1:700 is on par with most of the European countries.
Literacy Rate of Kerala from 1951 to 2011
Literacy Rate of Kerala from 1951 to 2011
Year ————-Literacy —————Male —————-Female
1951 ————--47.18 ———————58.35 —————36.43
1961 —————55.08 ———————64.89 ————-45.56
1971 —————69.75 ———————77.13 —————-62.53
1981 —————78.85 ———————84.56 —————-73.36
1991 —————-89.81 ———————93.62—————- 86.17
2001 —————-90.92 ———————94.20 —————87.86
2011 —————-94.59 ———————-97.10 —————92.12
The above table shows the literacy rate of Kerala from 1951 to 2011, measured every decade. The table reveals that Kerala made a steady progress over the decades and became the centre of attraction for development discourses in the 1990s.
In a nutshell:
- Education
- Political awareness
- Better politics
- People’s participation in development.
- Women at 60 are ready to learn operate machines, take loans, do farming
- Progressive thinking
For details, read the following examples. Let me assure you that these are the examples unique to Kerala, which give an insight to development in Kerala.
Reforms in Religion:
- A number of frauds take place in the name of religion. Common people are duped by thugs in the name of gurus, or babas or priests. Kerala’s home minister, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, has vowed to “book them all”. The state minister in charge of the administration of temples, G. Sudhakaran, reportedly believes that 90 percent of the gurus “are all thieves and they are all fit to go to jails”.[1] Santosh Madhavan alias Amrita Chaitanya, a temple priest and astrologer, was arrested on charges of molesting minor girls and fraud in 2008.
Another godman, Himaval Maheswarananda Bhadrananda was also arrested. Further, Heavenly Feast Evangelists Group, is being investigated by the income tax department; Matha Prasanna, who was arrested on charges of cheating and visa fraud; Ma Vishnumaya, whose husband was arrested on complaint of cheating; Sam Kuzhikala, against whom a non-bailable warrant was issued for fake cheques; Siddhan Kattachira, who was arrested on charges of cheating; Swami Sunil Das, whose wealth is being investigated; Pita Jyothirmayananda, who was arrested for issuing fake cheques; and Sheikh Yusuf Sultan, who is facing charges of cheating.[2]
Another instance where politics intervened in the religion was the case of Sauda. Sauda married in 1991 was divorced in 2004 and was left with her three children with no financial support. So, her lawyer Vinod Singh Cheriyan filed a case in the magistrate court in Kozhikode for 'future maintenance' of the children of Sauda. In 2005, the magistrate court granted Sauda Rs 360,000 including Rs 3,000 each for the three months during the iddat period, which was challenged by both the parties.
In the mean time, Sauda developed kidney problem and underwent dialysis which incurred her three lakh rupees over one and a half year. The lawyer further appealed for the medical expenses from the former husband. On July 25, 2015, Justice B Kamal Pasha of the Kerala high court ordered her former husband to pay Sauda's medical expenses and also her maintenance expenses for 10 years. Other than the alimony of Rs 360,000, Sauda's former husband Abbas should also pay Rs 231,000 for his divorced wife's medical expenses. This was a landmark judgement as divorced Muslim women were never given medical assistance by their former husbands. Further, this case brings back the memories of Shah Bano case.
"Our case should act as a warning," asserts Sauda. "It is high time change comes to society. This is not the way to treat a woman. I don't want any other woman to have a fate like mine and hope the judgment will pave the way for change."[3]
Some projects, initiatives and people’s participation
- The ‘Naivedyam’, or food offering, made for Lord Krishna at the world famous Guruvayur temple in Thrissur district of Kerala, includes a rare variety of bananas called ‘Pooja Kadali’. The temple was dependent on Tamil Nadu for this special variety of bananas. But now, women are growing these bananas on 47 acres, under seven panchayats of Kodakara block, in Kerala.
This was possible due to the Kudumbashree’s collective farming and ‘Samagra’ projects, implemented with active participation from Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and supported by a farming subsidy.[4] The women here formed into Joint Liability Groups (JLGs), under the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) guidelines and availed agricultural loans. These women some of them around the age of 60, have learnt operating machines on their farms adding more profits to the groups.
“I am part of a five-member Joint Liability Group and we cultivate bananas, vegetables, and paddy on about 15 acres of land. We supply the fruit to the Labour Cooperative Society, which has a deal with the Guruvayur Devaswom Board, under the auspices of the State government’s ‘Kudumbashree’ programme. Around 750 women in 150 groups are cultivating bananas in our block, The excess bananas are then utilised for making ‘Rasayanam’, an ayurvedic preparation, in collaboration with an Ayurvedic pharmaceutical company. About 20,000 bottles of ‘Rasayanam’ are being made in our block every month,” says 54-year-old Shobhana Krishnamurthy of Muttathoor panchayat.[5]
“We have debunked the theory that agriculture is not profitable. Our group ‘Aishwarya’ took a bank loan of Rs. 60,000 for cultivating the ‘Nendran’ variety of bananas on seventy five cents of land, which had been lying bare. We paid off the loan in just six months. The subsidy was a big help. We made a profit of one lakh in one season,” says 39-year-old Bina Pradeep of Vallachira village.[6]
Political awareness:
- Political awareness in Kerala is directly proportional to the literacy rate in the state. People of Plachimada in the Palakkad district of Kerala set another example of how common people can utilize their rights and challenge a global multi-national company. The company in question is the well known Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited, a subsidiary of the Atlanta based Coca-Cola Company. This company established a plant in Plachimada in 1999. It gained license from the Perumatty Village Council to start the production in 2000.
Complains about shortage of water through depletion of ground water levels and water pollution started increasing within two years. In 2003, women from the Vijayanagaram Colony in the village of Plachimada, protested that their wells had dried up because of the over exploitation of groundwater resources by the Coca-cola plant.[7] They also argued that the little which was left was undrinkable and when used for bathing the water burned their eyes and lead to skin complaints and also the depletion of groundwater resources also affected the ability of local residents to raise their crops of rice and coconuts[8].
Mayilamma, a common woman, was directly affected by Coca-Cola's operations in Plachimada, in Kerala's Palakkad district. The water in her well had been so heavily polluted by Coca-Cola's operations that it has been deemed unfit for human consumption. Mayilamma played a key role in the campaign to hold Coca-Cola accountable for water shortages and pollution in the area, and it was under her leadership that the community forced the Coca-Cola bottling plant to shut down in March 2004. She was the recipient of the Speak Out award by Outlook magazine and the Sthree Shakthi Award. She passed away in 2007.
Initially, all the political parties, the Communist Party, the Janata Dal, BJP and Congress opposed the agitation. It was first the Panchayat which came in support of the people and as the movement intensified, all the political parties rendered their support.
In April 2003, the Perumatty Grama Panchayat (Village Council) refused renewal of Coca-Cola’s licence to operate on the grounds that it was not in the public interest to renew the licence stating: “…the excessive exploitation of ground water by the Coca-Cola Company in Plachimada is causing acute drinking water scarcity in Perumatty Panchayat and nearby places…”[9]
In December 2003, the Village Council’s decision was challenged in the High Court of Kerala State. The Court recognised the role of the State as a trustee and mentioned that it is bound by a legal duty to protect natural resources. It further elaborated that the natural resources are meant for public use and thus must not be transferred for private ownership.
The presiding judge, Justice K Balakrishnan Nair, asserted that the government had a duty to act to “protect against excessive groundwater exploitation and the inaction of the State in this regard was tantamount to infringement of the right to life of the people guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.”[10]
The High Court ordered the plant to stop drawing the groundwater within a month, ruling that the amount of water extracted by the plant was illegal. But at the same time, it ordered the Village Council to renew the licence and not interfere with the functioning of the Company as long as it was not extracting the prohibited ground water. Coca-Cola refuted the accusations of excessive exploitation and pollution and lodged an appeal.
In 2005, the divisional bench of the High Court granted permission for the company to extract 500,000 litres from the common ground water per day in the year 2005-2006. In August 2005, the plant was closed once again, this time by the Kerala State Pollution Control Board stating: “In the waste water treatment sludges we have found contents of Cadmium abnormally high. It goes up to 600 percent above the permissible limit. In the ground water the content of Cadmium is not that much. So, there is something which they are using in the raw materials.”
In October 2005, the State Government of Kerala announced it would support the Village Council local activists by challenging Coca Cola’s right to extract water from common groundwater resources in the Supreme Court of India. In an official press release, Health Minister K. K Ramachandran said: “the Government will stand by the people in whichever court the company goes. The right over water and air is the right to live. The Government will not allow stopping of these two lifelines of the people.” In November 2005, the Village Council files against the latest High Court order in the Supreme Court
On 4 January 2006, following decisions of the Kerala High Court, the Village Council renewed the Coca Cola company’s licence for three months but laid out thirteen conditions. The first of these was that the company shall not use groundwater from Perumatty Panchayat for industrial purposes, or for producing soft drinks, aerated carbonate beverages or fruit juice. The Village Council cited the 2004 Supreme Court decision of M C Mehta v Union of India and the notification by the Kerala State Groundwater Department that village is ‘over exploited’ with regard to groundwater.
Although the Coca Cola factory in Plachimada has remained closed since 2004, locals are not satisfied with simply closing the plant; they want justice for the damage caused to health and the environment. They are still fighting for the compensation. The role played by common people of a village is of great significance and stands as an example of a true democracy and fulfills the meaning of development
Calling a visit to Kerala an intellectual adventure, American journalist and environmentalist William Ernest Bill McKibben sums up what Kerala is.
“Kerala is a bizarre anomaly among developing nations, a place that offers real hope for the future of the Third World. Consider: This small state in India, though not much larger than Maryland, has a population as big as California's and a per capita annual income of less than $300. But its infant mortality rate is low, its literacy rate among the highest on Earth, and its birthrate below America's and falling faster. Kerala's citizens live nearly as long as Americans or Europeans. Though mostly a land of paddy-covered plains, statistically Kerala stands out as the Mount Everest of social development; there's truly no place like it.”[11]
References:
[1] Arora, Vishal. Religion & Politics in India. Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life. Washington DC, July 28 to August 1, 2008. http://www.ocrpl.org/2009/full-text-religion-politics-in-india-vishal-arora/
[2] Arora, Vishal. Religion & Politics in India. Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life. Washington DC, July 28 to August 1, 2008. http://www.ocrpl.org/2009/full-text-religion-politics-in-india-vishal-arora/
[3] Warrier, Shobha. “Now, men will be a bit scared to say talaq.” 1 September 2015.
http://www.rediff.com/news/report/now-men-will-be-a-bit-scared-to-say-talaq/20150901.htm?
[4] Menon, Ajitha. “A Government Programme in Kerala Is Turning Women into Agripreneurs.” 27 February 2016. http://www.thebetterindia.com/46685/kudumbashree-kerala-government-guruvayur-pooja-kadali-agriculture/
[5]Menon, Ajitha. “A Government Programme in Kerala Is Turning Women into Agripreneurs.” 27 February 2016. http://www.thebetterindia.com/46685/kudumbashree-kerala-government-guruvayur-pooja-kadali-agriculture/
[6] Ibid.
[7] Case against Coca-Cola Kerala State: India. righttowater.info
[8] Case against Coca-Cola Kerala State: India. http://www.righttowater.info/rights-in-practice/legal-approach-case-studies/case-against-coca-cola-kerala-state-india/
[9] “Perumatty Grama Panchayat Vs State of Kerala.” ENVIRONMENTAL LAW RESEARCH AND GUIDANCE FOUNDATION
[10] Blanco, Elena. and Razzaque, Jona. Globalisation and Natural Resources Law: Challenges, Key Issues and Perspectives. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011. p. 317.
[11] Bill, Mckibben, Kerala, India, National Geographic Traveller.
National Geographic: Stories of Animals, Nature, and Culture
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