Kerala : Land of Paradoxes

 Kerala : Land of Paradoxes

Many friends asked me on messenger, and other social media, whether Kerala is so good. This was in response to my piece on how and why Kerala performed well in Covid 19 response. (Link in the first comment )

The answer is Kerala has so many problems. There is indeed another side of 'development and democracy ' story.

My piece was with specific reference to the Covid 19 crisis response management.

Kerala is a land of multiple paradoxes.. The good things is that it is a critical society where in the public sphere people can critique as well as applaud. The democratization of polity also means that we discuss the pros and cons and propose changes as a part of political and policy debates.

Kerala has many challenges.

1)Our economy is a derivative economy, as the primary driver is the remittances.

So if there is an economic recession or crisis in the gulf or anywhere, we will be the first to hit. In the absence of industries and big business, there is a vulnerability in our economy.

When remittances decrease, it will have adverse impact on economy and public finance.

2). With cumulative deficit budgets, we have a public debt which is at least double of our annual budget.

3). Our economic and infrastructure development adversely affected our fragile tropical environment. This also adversely affected our agricultural sector.

Growth in food consumption and decline of agriculture, resulted in increased important of food from other states.

Environmental crisis also make us more prone to natural disasters

4) The extreme political party competitions often leads to political intolerance and violent behavior, which also lead to political murders. Mudslinging and intolerance have become part of political party culture.

5) Inequality is on the rise with social and economic consequence.

Social and economic inequalities often lead to new exclusions and reinforce the historical exclusion based on caste and creed

6).Despite the limited land reforms, there are lakhs of families who are landless and homeless. And it is not an accident that a large number of people without land and homes happened to be Dalits and Adivasi communities

7). While government perfom very well in crisis management, the default position include a kind complacent arrogance and indifference.

Because of hyper party politics in the government staff unions and universities, there is a lack of adequate accountability and performance in many parts of the government.

The over politicisation(based on political party competition ) of university system often compromised the quality of higher education, resulting in migration of students to universities outside the state.

8). Though there is a relatively high indicators of women's health and education, the entrenched patriarchal approach in political parties and society hampered the rise of women leaders. The violence against women is relatively high too.

The total number of women MLAs/MPs are the less than many other states in India.

9) In a middle class society of high aspirations and challenge to achieve that, the suicide rates are high .

10) In a highly competitive society, often the affiliation of caste and creed and political parties influence in many areana of power in government and elsewhere.

11) The general image of anti-entrepreneurial mindset, coupled with population density with less land availability, also meant there are less employment opportunities in the state

This made almost 20% of population migrating out of the state in search of gainful employment elsewhere, anywhere in the world.

What is generally termed as middle class crab mentality, coupled with indifferent arrogance of those associated with power, often discouraged new investments due to perceptions of high risks.

Kerala has many second generation development challenges, including that of an aging society, cumulative migration and resultant brain -drain

All the societies have many adantages and disadvantages. Positive aspects as well as challenging aspects.

What is important is to work on the strengths and work harder to address the causes and consequence of limitations and challenges.

Kerala also have a very high media penetration with its pros and cons. Despite the usual challenges of competitive corporate media culture, media in general also provide space for critical thinking and positive proposals.

The good story is that there are significant positive forces and proposals that will continue to challenge and change these constraints.

Due to democracy, development and relatively empowered people, Kerala has a resilience to address few of the challenge.

It is the empowered people, social solidarity and community resilience that would make change happen.

Hence, I stil remain optimistic

JS Adoor