In reality, what Modi does is not what Modi boasts
At a FICCI ‘ladies’ meet, Modi, naturally, chose to speak on women empowerment. And in the process was careful to hide the fact that his governance record in Gujarat since 2001 had little to show by way of gender development. And at the second event he focussed on a new mantra – minimum government, maximum governance – forgetting that Gujarat is a case of maximum government with minimum results in key sectors.
To the ‘ladies’ Modi mentioned that in the 18th century new-born girl babies were ‘drowned in milk,’ but in the 21st century would-be parents in India preferred to kill their unborn female children in the womb.
While he posed as the champion of the girl-child, what he did not say was that under his watch proud Gujaratis were killing more unborn female babies than before: the sex ratio in Gujarat worsened from 921 (per 1000 male births) in 2001 to just 918 in 2011. A marginal decline one could say, but significant since in that decade, the overall all India sex ratio improved from 933 to 940.
Several states, some less developed than Gujarat, put up a better performance to help move the all India figure in a positive direction: Assam improved sex ratio by 22 points from 932 to 954; Andhra Pradesh by 14 points from 978 to 992; Madhya Pradesh by 10 points from 920 to 930 thanks perhaps to the state government’s ladli laxmi yojana; and several other states like Karnataka, Himachal, Maharashtra bettered their 2001 sex ratio statistics by 3 to 4 points.
Modi spoke about matri shakti the power of the mother. But clearly, on the ground Modi’s government has not paid enough attention to reduction of maternal mortality rates. National Sample Surveys establish that in Gujarat MMR fell by 12 points between 2004-06 and 2007-09 from 160 to 148. But in the same period both Kerala and Tamil Nadu reduced maternal mortality rates by 14 points each and Maharashtra brought it down by a good 26 points from 130 to 104. For every 100 maternal deaths in Maharashtra there are 145 in Gujarat!
Over the decade 2001 to 2011 Census figures show Gujarat has dropped to 17th from 18th state rank in literacy. In Per Capita Net State Domestic Product (PCNSDP) Gujarat held the 4th rank among states in 1996-97 and since then it has hovered between 6th and 7th rank whereas Maharashtra has climbed from the 3rd to 2nd rank and Haryana to the number one position as Punjab declined from the 1st position in 2001-02 to 4th in 2007-08.
As for health indicators, life expectancy in Gujarat is 10 years lower than in Kerala and about the same as the national average despite its claims about being a developed state. Several National Sample Surveys have indicated that malnutrition affects about 44.6 per cent of the people and 66 per cent children in the 0 to 5 years age group suffer from anaemia.
Planning Commission figures indicate poverty in Gujarat reduced from an incidence of 31.6 per cent to 23 per cent between 2004-05 and 2009-10, a drop of 8.6 percentage points (using the Tendulkar methodology at constant prices). In the period by the same methodology in Maharashtra poverty came down by 14 percentage points to 24.5 per cent. Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu both reduced poverty by 12 percentage points during this period.
The harsh fact is that under Modi – he has ruled Gujarat for 13 years while Manmohan Singh has been prime minister for nine – his state has not been able to bag the number one state ranking in any socio-economic indicator.
