Gujarat government has been making claim that the state was number one state in India, but the PM Narendra Modi-led central government gave 11th rank to his home state in human development index (HDI).
The HDI is the barometer for the wellbeing of people in state and the economic survey of 2016-17 prepared by the central government. As per the base year of 2007-08 Gujarat could not get the position in top 10 states of the state in perspective of people's wellbeing.
Pathey, an NGO based in Ahmedabad, prepared the budget analysis of Gujarat government and made the report on the same. The report mentioned that the rate of below powerty line families been registered in Gujarat during the year 2011-12 was 16.6% and that was 21.5% in rural areas and 10.1% in urban areas of the state.
The report also mentioned that infant mortality ratio in Gujarat was reported as high as 30 in 2017 and that was 19 in urban areas and 38 in rural areas. The Pathey stated that the double rate of infant mortality ratio in rural area to the same of urban areas is because of void of health amenities, malnutrition and water borne diseases.
As per the report of government released in 2014, 37.2% children were stunting, 11.3% were wasting and 10.6% of children were under weight. Whereas the mother mortality ration also was reported high at the compared to other state and that was 112 deaths of mothers during delivery against one lakh in Gujarat.
The Pathey analysed that only 5.31% of the total allocation of grants were made after the health and family welfare department while the women and child welfare department got only 1.68% allocation of budget grants.
The NGO mentioned in the report, "Gujarat government needs to increase the grants in many folds for the health, nutrition and education to achieve higher human development index. The government is spending around 5.5% budget grants for health related service but to ensure good quality health services to citizens of the state, 8% of total allocation should be spent after the sector."
The report also mentioned that among 18 big states of India, Gujarat stood tenth in spending budget grants for social services with 41.3% of total grants in 2016-17. Surprisingly that was 43.1% in previous year and this indicated that state government down sized the budget for the social sector.
REPORT CARD
- As per the report of government released in 2014, 37.2% children were stunting, 11.3% were wasting and 10.6% of children were under weight.
