The Hindu Business Line : Kerala's lessons for Katrina-hit US

WHAT could possibly link last week's heavy rainfall in the southern districts of Kerala to a natural disaster that happened around 15,000 km away, across oceans, in a foreign land?

Hurricane Katrina, which blighted New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities in the US, could seem to be an unfortunate tragedy far removed from the concerns of ordinary Keralites, even those in the villages of Pathanamthitta district struggling to cope with the 4-6 cm rainfall that destroyed crops spread over 1,427 hectares, causing an estimated loss of around Rs 3 crore.

Even the scale of the two tragedies is different. The Government of Kerala has sought close to Rs 351 crore ($80.1 million) as assistance from the Centre for flood relief measures. In contrast, Hurricane Katrina could cost the US insurance industry up to $25 billion in claims, according to risk assessment firms.

Yet, there is a connection - tenuous perhaps to the casual observer - but a socially significant one. And the clue to that association can be found in the above contrast. While one disaster-hit area turned to the Government for help, the other relied on private-sector initiatives.

As Paul Krugman, noted economist and New York Times Op-Ed columnist, wrote, "The federal Government's lethal ineptitude was a consequence of ideological hostility to the very idea of using Government to serve the public good. That contempt reflects a general hostility to the role of Government as a force for good. And Americans living along the Gulf Coast have now reaped the consequences of that hostility."

That power of falling back on the State was reinforced in the latest Human Development Report 2005 of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), released last week, which said that though the US leads the world in healthcare spending, some other regions that spend substantially less have healthier populations.

And among them is Kerala. Says the UNDP report, "The Indian State of Kerala has an urban infant death rate lower than that for African Americans in Washington, DC. Infant death rates are higher for African American children in Washington, DC, than for children in Kerala, India."

The report went on to add: "In India, four States account for more than half of child deaths: Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. These States also are marked by some of the deepest gender inequalities in India. Contrasts with Kerala are striking. Girls born in Kerala are five times more likely to reach their fifth birthday, are twice as likely to become literate and are likely to live 20 years longer than girls born in Uttar Pradesh.

The differences are linked to the chronic under-provision of health services in high-mortality northern States, which is, in turn, linked to unaccountable State-level governance structures."

It is all the more striking that these findings or recommendations should come around the time of the International Literacy Day, falling on September 8. The UN estimates that nearly 800 million adults are still illiterate, two-thirds of them women, and over 100 million children are out of school.

Not in Kerala, though.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com

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