The Hindu Business Line : Budgeting for Kerala model

Even if this year's Union Budget may not have delivered to Kerala any surprise gift-wrapped goodies, the reverse may well have happened: By forcing the Union Govern-ment to follow in its pioneering path of investing unreservedly in the social sectors, Kerala has helped India get back to school.

The Union Budget for 2006-07 presented in Parliament by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram last week may not exactly have set the State of Kerala on fire, going by the muted responses to the budget proposals.

Some were exceptionally stern. Yet, more balanced analysts found some features to be worthy, specifically on how the budget had been able to strike "a balance between fiscal consolidation and the need to spend, especially in key areas such as agriculture, the rural economy and social services."

The budget has increased allocations for education and health by 34 per cent and 22 per cent respectively, implying increasing spending commitments related to public investment, infrastructure, and the rural and social sectors.

"In allocating resources," Mr Chidambaram said, "school education must have primacy. Hence, I propose to increase the allocation for school education by about 35 per cent from Rs 17,133 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 23,142 crore in 2007-08. Out of this amount, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) will be provided Rs 10,671 crore. Further, I propose to increase the provision for strengthening teachers training institutions from Rs 162 crore to Rs 450 crore. Next year, we will appoint 200,000 more teachers and construct 500,000 more classrooms."

MORE ON OFFER

The budget had more to offer: a revamped Mid-day Meal Scheme to cover more children in primary classes, as well as children in upper primary classes in 3,427 educationally backward blocks; increased access to secondary education, for which the allocation has been increased from Rs 1,837 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 3,794 crore in 2007-08; and a National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme.

Clearly, the focus of this year's Union Budget has been the social sector. And in bringing about that emphasis, Kerala can take some pride, albeit in a roundabout, referential fashion. Long before budgets became a fashionable attraction on prime-time television, Kerala demonstrated to the rest of the world the virtues of investing heavily in social infrastructure.

Over the years of State-driven allocations to the social sectors, Kerala has managed to achieve exceptional social development in such areas as health, education, and even the demographic transition, despite low economic development and low per capita income.

SOCIAL INDICES

In four of the most important indicators of social development - adult literacy, life expectancy, infant mortality, and birth rates - Kerala is not only far ahead of India and every other Indian State, but it also stands out among low-income countries of the world and is even on a par with some middle-income European countries. Sociologist and anthropologist Joseph Tharamangalam writes in `The Perils of Social Development without Economic Growth: The Development Debacle of Kerala, India': "Significantly, Kerala's achievements are distributed relatively equally across urban-rural, male-female, and low caste-high caste populations. In this respect Kerala outshines the rest of India and the rest of the world."

Thus, even if this year's Union Budget may not have delivered to Kerala any surprise gift-wrapped goodies, the reverse may well have happened: By forcing the Union government to follow in its pioneering path of investing unreservedly in the social sectors, Kerala has helped India get back to school.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com