M A BABY: THE LEFT ALTERNATIVE IN EDUCATION - THE NEW KERALA MODEL

WHEN the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government came to office in Kerala in 2006, education was in doldrums. More than 2000 government and aided schools were on the verge of closure. Standards had deteriorated so much in these schools that there was an exodus of children from public funded institutions to private schools which were successful in creating a false impression of quality through window dressing and clever advertising. The plight of higher education was no different. Government and aided colleges which had only outdated curriculum and courses to offer were becoming redundant. Young boys and girls were flocking to self-financing professional colleges, most of which had only poor infrastructure and charged hefty fees. Rajani S Anand, the hapless girl who committed suicide by jumping off the multi-storied building which housed the office of the Commissioner of Entrance Examinations epitomised the sense of gloom and despondency that was characteristic of Kerala’s educational scenario in 2006. While education was becoming increasingly inaccessible, there was all-round deterioration in quality right from the primary to the post graduate levels. Kerala’s achievements in education were in danger of being eroded, both in quantitative and qualitative terms.

The LDF government not only attempted to stem the rot by taking immediate corrective steps but also initiated structural changes which would rejuvenate education in the state on a long term basis. The problems faced by the state were in some ways different from those in other states and the solutions had to be different as well. The LDF was also convinced of the need to evolve an alternate strategy of development that would be truly inclusive in terms of access, equity and quality, different from the agenda of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation pursued by the central government. This necessitated a lot of thinking and planning at various levels. What emerged in the process was a participatory mode for conceiving and implementing reforms, which is perhaps the most important innovation of the LDF government in education during the last five years.

EQUITY AND EXCELLENCE

True to its commitment to providing quality education for all, the government introduced a special scheme for the development of least performing schools in the state. It identified 104 schools with less than 33 per cent pass percentage in the SSLC examination for special quality enhancement programme. The ameliorative approach was not only novel in conception but in implementation as well. The local self-governments and the local people collaborated with the government in improving infrastructure and providing academic ambience conducive to enhancement of quality. The success of the programme was reflected in the SSLC results year after year. The average pass percentage in these schools was 80 per cent in the last SSLC examination. The performance of the students across the state has also improved over the last five years. The clear indicator in this regard is the SSLC examination results which saw pass percentage enhanced from 58 per cent in 2005 to over 90 per cent in 2010. The success of the initiative prompted implementation of similar programmes for SC/ST/Minority students across the state. Another important step taken by the government was to strengthen the mid-day meal scheme by adding milk and eggs twice a week. Apart from including the excluded, the steps taken by the government for improving the quality of the least performing schools/groups/individuals also helped evolve an alternative model for public-private-partnership in education. The government could revive the dormant tradition of philanthropic public-private-partnership in education through these programmes. The Kerala model where private resources are made available for public use is quite different from the model of public-private-partnership being implemented by the central government which would result in private appropriation of public assets. In a national-level study conducted in 2010 by Educational Initiatives, an Ahmedabad-based NGO, with the support of Google evaluating the learning levels of government school students in languages and Maths, Kerala has emerged as the top performing state.

The structural reforms undertaken by the LDF government at the school level include curricular reforms that have brought about revolutionary changes in the content and pedagogy of school education. Drawing upon the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), Kerala developed a Kerala Curriculum Framework (KCF). While adopting the basic principles of social constructivism and critical pedagogy advocated in the NCF, the KCF could localise its implementation by involving the entire stakeholders including students, teachers, parents and experts. This was complemented by extensive training given to teachers in the nuances of the new curriculum. The ban on recruitment of teachers was lifted and more than 5000 school teachers have since been appointed. The government also facilitated the opening of additional batches for plus one courses in the Malabar region, covering 120 panchayats, helping to enhance access, especially among Minority students. A systematic effort was made to universalise IT education and IT enabled education among school children which has been widely acclaimed. Steps were also taken to revise Kerala Educational Rules and to frame rules for the implementation of the Right to Education Act in the state.

The reforms introduced in higher education also had the twin objectives of promoting equity and excellence. A number of scholarships on merit-cum-means basis were introduced. In the higher secondary level, 10,000 scholarships each worth Rs 5000 were instituted. The State Higher Education Council introduced a five year scholarship scheme. 1000 scholarships are awarded each year to degree and post graduate students. A scholar will get 1.54 lakh rupees over a five year period. The funds required for the scholarships are raised through public-private-participation. The Council has received contributions big and small, the latest being the commitment to contribute Rs Five crores over a period of ten years by Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO of Infosys. The government has also instituted Suvarna Jubilee Scholarship for BPL category of students and another scholarship for Muslim girls, apart from implementing the central sector scholarships.

The government constituted the State Council for Higher Education to innovate reforms and to co-ordinate their implementation. One of the important reforms initiated by the Council was to rejuvenate the government and aided sector and traditional disciplines. Steps were taken to restructure the undergraduate programmes by introducing choice-based-course-credit-semester system (CBCCSS) and grading. Kerala is perhaps the only state which has faithfully implemented the UGC vision on restructuring undergraduate education. It was possible to implement this complex reform without any hassles due to meticulous planning and implementation under the leadership of the State Higher Education Council. The implementation of the CBCCSS has opened up the opportunities for quality education for all, which is a remarkable departure from the prevailing practice of setting up exclusive islands of excellence. The object of the reform is to democratise quality in higher education. Kerala is the first state in the entire country to seriously take up the recommendations for setting up clusters of colleges. All Education Commissions in free India, starting with Kothari Commission and including National Knowledge Commission have commended the system of clusters of colleges, with a view to extending excellence from the centre to the periphery by pooling intellectual and physical resources available among neighbouring colleges. The scheme has now been implemented on an experimental basis in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode. The Higher Education Council is also engaged in setting up a comprehensive data bank on higher education in the state, the first effort of its kind in the whole country. The reports brought out by the Council on the State Policy on Higher Education, Restructuring Undergraduate Education, Scheme of Cluster of Colleges, Examination Reforms, Revision of University Acts etc. have evoked unprecedented popular interest in higher education.

NOVEL SCHEME

The scholar-in-residence programme (ERUDITE) is a novel scheme implemented by the government for collaborating with internationally renowned universities and their faculty. The scheme provides for extended visits by well known scholars to the universities in the state. A number of renowned scholars, including eight Nobel Laureates, have taken part in the programme so far. Apart from its inspirational value, the visits of such scholars have also led to sustained academic collaboration between the universities in the state and reputed foreign universities. The scheme is qualitatively different from that promoted by the central government which has piloted the ‘Foreign Universities Bill’ to facilitate the setting up of off campus centres of foreign universities in the country. The central initiative facilitates academic re-colonisation of India. Kerala’s experiment would promote academic regeneration through collaborative engagements on a global scale.

The efforts of the government to improve the quality of education in the technical education sector have borne fruits. Smart classes with internet connectivity have been set up in all government engineering colleges. Regular training programmes are conducted for teachers. For content development, schemes such as K-base, The Scholar, Gurusmarana and Promelavya are being implemented. Quality improvement programme was implemented in Polytechnics. Seventeen Finishing Schools were also set up to improve the employability of the polytechnic pass outs.

Despite obstructionist interventions from the vested interests and unhelpful judicial verdicts, the government could still ensure a modicum of social justice in the self-financing sector. A majority of the self-financing institutions which were started under the previous UDF regime with no regulatory control could be brought under an arrangement for seat sharing with the government and having socially sensitive fees structure. The total commitment of the government to social justice and its determination to ensure it, helped in overcoming successive challenges in the self-financing sector. The achievements of the LDF government in Kerala in the self-financing sector acquire more sheen if pitted against the retrograde steps being taken by the central government in this sector during the last five years. The common minimum programme (CMP) of UPA-I had promised that nobody would be denied access to higher professional education for want of financial resources. But the promise has not been redeemed so far. The draft bill prepared by MHRD in 2005 and the draft regulations prepared by UGC in 2007 which contained several provisions for ensuring social justice have now been set aside. In their place, Kapil Sibal has introduced the bill on ‘Prevention of Unfair Practices in Technical and Medical Educational Institutions’ which is intended to legalise corporatisation and commercialisation of technical and medical education. There is no provision in the bill for a common entrance test (CET) or a single window system (SWS) of admission. There is no provision for implementing constitutionally mandated reservation. There is also no legal sanction for an inclusive fees structure. The bill only seeks to ensure transparency in the business of education. With the enactment of the bill in the parliament, even the existing admission and fees regulatory committees in the state will have to be disbanded.

Even as Kerala was implementing its own unique programmes in higher education it was also trying to make the best use of enhanced central assistance for higher education. A number of new institutions including Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), a Central University and a Centre of Aligarh Muslim University have been set up in the state during the last five years with central assistance. The National Centre for Molecular Materials, Regional Centre of Indian Institute of Mass Communication and the World Class Central University will be established. The Centre for Engineering Research and Development (CERD) is established to encourage basic and applied research in engineering and technology and the Trivandrum Engineering Science and Technology Research (TREST) Park is established to enhance industry-institute interaction and to promote R&D activities. A number of Inter-University centres have been set up in the state on the model of such centres set up by the UGC which would hopefully develop into advanced centres doing study and research in frontier inter-disciplinary areas including bio-informatics, intellectual property rights and development studies, environment and sustainable development, nanomaterials and devices, biosciences, disability studies, social science research and extension, Kerala legacy of astronomy and mathematics, plant biotechnology, marine biotechnology, genomics and gene technology and biomedical research. The Raja Ravi Varma Centre of Excellence for Visual Arts is envisaged as an inter university centre in Visual Arts. School for Performance, Aesthetics and Culture (SPACE) is an interdisciplinary research and study centre of unique character for creating aesthetic awareness and experience and for promoting the study of performing arts and cultural practices.

In addition to these, new colleges and courses were started in government, aided and unaided sectors. The 12 year ban on appointment of teachers was lifted by the government. More than 2500 teachers were appointed in colleges and universities during the last five years. Of this 1700 were appointed to new posts created during the period. While the previous UDF government had progressively reduced the budget allocation for higher education, the LDF government increased the budgetary allocation year after year. The non-plan grant for universities alone was enhanced from Rs 790 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 2296 crore in 2011-12.

Education is the key to development in a knowledge society. It is necessary to ensure the continuance of the policies initiated by the LDF government for consolidating the gains made and making it more inclusive by expanding its base. In the context of the coming elections, it is not enough to assess the reforms already implemented. The impending reforms are as important as the reforms already implemented. The agenda of reforms presented at the third International Congress on Kerala Development assumes critical importance in this context.

Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org/

RESURGENCE OF KERALA PSUS: THE POLITICAL LESSON

Elamaram Kareem

TECHNICALLY speaking, the LDF government in Kerala is left with only two more months whereas practically the government has come to an end from the declaration of election to the Assembly except for routine matters. The electorate of Kerala will be casting their confidence for the formation of a government on 13 April 2011. At the fag end of this government, I think it is necessary to do two things. Firstly, to critically analyse the performance of the government from a pro-people angle and secondly, to put forward an agenda for further actions.

FROM BLEAK SCENARIO

When the LDF government assumed office in May 2006, the industrial sector of the state was in doldrums; public sector was collapsing, private investments were diminishing, workers in the traditional sector were thrown out on to the streets and the small and medium sector was thoroughly shrinking. The conventional stigma that the state was not investor friendly was underscored and whatever industry was operating in the state also was getting ready for migrating to neighbouring states. This was neither accidental nor an immediate phenomenon. It was the result of the neo liberal policies pursued by the immediately preceding UDF government from 2001 onwards. Of course, the economic policies of the union government also contributed to develop this state of affairs.

The LDF government that came to power after a landslide victory in 2006 was well aware of the task ahead but we had taken it up as part of our struggles against imperialistic globalisation and was sure that with the help of common people we would be able to confront the situation. Our immediate task was to set the house in order that was totally in a mess with corruption, extravaganza, nepotism, and malpractices. We could start implementing the development projects only after a considerable time due to this. So we had to work extremely fast, and very often take unprecedented decisions. After almost five years of running the government, we are very sure that the promises we had given to the people of Kerala had been successfully honoured.

Although there are commendable performances in industrial sector as a whole I will confine my note to the performances of State Level Public Enterprises in Kerala during the last five years. When the LDF government came to power, the state of the affairs of the PSUs was pathetic. Demoralised workers, low productivity, liquidity crisis, mismanagement, corruption and nepotism were the main characteristics of these companies. The UDF government was implementing the policy of “Close down, Privatise and grant VRS to the workers”. In order to implement this policy at the official level, an Enterprises Reforms Committee (ERC) was constituted and the Report, which throughout has taken an anti-PSU stand, was accepted by the UDF government without any modification. The ERC Report emphatically stated that the PSUs had become a huge liability on the state exchequer and such undertakings should be immediately closed down or privatised. On the basis of the ERC Report, Government Orders were issued for closure/disinvestments of 25 companies. Hundreds of workers were given voluntary retirement. Profit making companies had become fertile areas of corruption. There were strong moves to sell out the properties of the PSUs. Against the anti-PSU stand of the UDF government, there was strong public opinion and employees of these companies, irrespective of their political affiliation, rallied behind the 'Save PSUs agitation'. The strong protests by the workers and the Left parties had prevented the UDF government from selling out the public properties. However, many companies became dormant due to massive VRS and deliberate management inefficiency.

IMPRESSIVE PERFORMANCE

In 2005-06, i.e., in the last year of the UDF rule, only 12 out of 44 companies were making profits. These units together made a loss of Rs 69.64 crore. From 2006-07 onwards the situation started changing. In 2006-07 there was a considerable leap both in the case of turnover and profit. The total turnover was Rs 1763.74 crore against Rs 1540.40 crore in the previous year and the total profit was Rs 91.18 crore. The number of profit making companies increased to 24. In 2007-08, the number of profit making units was increased to 27 and the total profit was Rs 80.30 crore. The turnover was increased to Rs 1811.50 crore. In 2008-09, in spite of global economic recession and corresponding shrink in demand, the companies presented extremely impressive results. By this year the number of companies under the Industries Department was reduced to 41 and out of the 41 companies, 28 companies became profitable. Total turnover was Rs. 2105.01 crore and total profit was Rs. 169.45 crore. There was an increase of 16 per cent in the turnover and 111 per cent increase in profit compared to previous year. In 2009-10, the number of units has further reduced to 37 as some small units were merged together. Out of the 37 companies, 32 companies became profitable. The total turnover was Rs 2190.73 crore and the total profit was Rs 239.75 crore.

With a strong political will and concerted efforts, this government could bring substantial changes in the performance of the units. The loss of Rs 69.64 crore in 2005-06 was converted into a profit of Rs 239.75 crore in 2010-11. All the companies except five were made profitable. In 2011-12 the state will have the record of 'no loss-making PSU'. This achievement is mainly due to the pro-PSUapproach, conceptual clarity about the role of PSUs, result oriented action plan with definite milestones, meticulous supervision, and professionalisation of management. Growth and development of PSUs are taken as the essential part of the political struggle against neo-liberal capitalism and the imperialist globalisation.

Special mention is necessary about the role of Trade Unions and Officers’ Associations in achieving these results. For the last five years there was no notable labour unrest in this sector and the employees were fully cooperating with the management. The government could solve many of their long pending demands and salary revisions were implemented in almost all the companies and in those units where salary revisions were not legally permitted, remunerations were hiked either by paying interim relief or incentives. During the last five years, Rs 340.57 crore was remitted to the exchequer as Commercial Taxes, Excise Duty and Electricity charges. Around 9000 new appointments were made in this sector during the last five years.

NOT AN EASY TASK

I am not going into the details of strategies adopted for the resurgence of the public sector units in Kerala. When the revival of PSUs was planned in 2006, it was sure that the task was not going to be an easy one. All the important fields like management, financial, technical, marketing, human resource, administrative etc., demanded a new approach. It was important to develop a result oriented action plan and to execute it in a time bound manner. In order to prepare such an action plan, lot of deliberations were held with experts in the relevant fields. Dialogues were initiated with various government departments, PSUs under other administrative departments, banks, similar units under central government, media etc. Trade Union leaders were specially invited and interactions with them were held for identifying the crucial problems in this sector and for gathering inputs for solving them. On the basis of these deliberations an action plan for the growth and development of PSUs was prepared. Road map with specific milestones was developed and clear targets were fixed for the implementing agencies. Systems were established for meticulous monitoring and follow up actions.

From 2007-08 onwards, appointments of CEOs in the PSUs were made by a Selection Board through open advertisement and interview. Search committees were also constituted to identify experts of various sectors. In majority of companies, persons selected through the above processes are appointed as CEOs. For the capacity building of second line management, recurring training programmes were organised. The companies were making huge monetary defaults to the banks and in 2006-07, the amount defaulted by the companies was Rs 359.66 crore. With government intervention, this amount was settled under One Time Settlement Scheme for Rs 89.39 crore with the budgetary support. This has enhanced the financial capacity of the companies. For the last five years, performance review of the PSUs is made every month without fail. The monthly performance review is done by the minister for a whole day with the support of secretaries and senior officials of the department. This has developed a sense of accountability in the management and that has resulted in the performance of the units. It was a matter of serious concern that there were huge arrears of auditing of accounts in the PSUs. This has resulted in faulty financial planning, and developed room for corruption. In some cases the internal auditors were colluding with the management to hide certain wrong practices. These issues were solved by preparing a panel of auditors and the companies were instructed to appoint the auditors from this panel only. A time limit also was fixed for the auditors. By 2009-10, almost all the operating companies have completed their internal audit.

GOLDEN ERA OF THE PSUs

It was a unique attempt to go for strategic tie-ups with central PSUs and central government agencies and to form joint venture between the state and the central PSUs. So far, four such companies have been formed. This has helped the state PSUs to have an exposure to better management in marketing, finance and HR sectors. These Joint Ventures are functioning successfully.

During 2010-11, expansion / modernisation programmes in the companies to the tune of Rs 275 crore are being implemented. Most striking point was that eight new units of PSUs were commissioned in this year attracting capital investment of Rs 170 crore. They were declared in the month of February 2010 in the budget of 2010-11 and all these units are operational by March 2011. This is probably for the first time in the history of Kerala that so many new Public Sector Undertaking units have been announced and commissioned within such a short period. It was astonishing that the public sector could outperform the private sector in project implementation. For implementing the above projects, the surplus funds of the PSUs were utilised. Capital investment in the public sector was happening after a lapse of almost three decades!

The LDF regime will be marked as the golden era of the PSUs in the state. The achievements in this sector were highlighted in a national conference in 2009 and in an international conference in 2010. The remarkable performances were acclaimed by academics and practitioners alike and it was suggested that the Kerala model should set as an example before the advocates of neo liberalism who argue for the closing down of all public sector units.

Of course, lot of things are left to be done. For the revamping and strengthening of the PSUs, the present activities are to be continued. These units are to be converted into exemplary productive zones and thereby making them as effective tools to counter the neo liberal capitalist agenda. Instead of making them as the replica of private sector undertakings where the utmost importance is to maximising the profits, public sector units with social obligations and commitments are to be developed. In the transitional period from capitalism to socialism, the public sector has to play a very important role and should be able to expedite the struggle for socialism. That is the historical importance of the revival of Kerala PSUs and I am sure that the LDF government that is going to be formed after the assembly election will carry forward this struggle.

Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org/

V S ACHUTHANANDAN ON THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE LDF GOVT

THE present LDF government is the fifth Left-led government in the history of Kerala state. All these governments have pursued a policy different from the one pursued by governments led by Congress, BJP and other bourgeois parties at central and state levels. The main feature of the Left policy is that it is people oriented. All the Left-led governments have implemented measures by which the quality of life of the downtrodden and marginalized people in Kerala has risen to the standard of some of the developed countries in the world.

The achievements of the LDF government in Kerala have been hailed from various quarters. Last year the news magazine India Today had adjudged Kerala as the best ruled state in India. This year news channel IBN7 has selected Kerala for an award for its achievements in the fields of education, health services and social welfare.

The Left in Kerala has a tradition spanning over five decades of implementing the pro-people Left agenda. Through various measures, including land reforms, removing many of the vestiges of the feudal system that existed earlier, democratisation of many activities of the State, upholding and extending rights and freedom of workers, peasants, students, youth, women and other sections of people, ensuring social justice for the deprived classes and introducing decentralisation at various levels of government, the Left-led governments in Kerala developed a better quality of life for people at a very low per capita expenditure, which attracted the attention of the whole world. Scholars from developed countries gave it a pet name, Kerala Model. The challenge before the Left in Kerala has always been to preserve and enrich this model in spite of the pro-rich policies of the central government and the continuous interventions of UDF governments led by the Congress to distort and undermine these pro-people achievements.

When the present LDF government assumed office, the state was, literally, in shambles. During the previous UDF rule, Kerala, which is historically famous for religious amity, witnessed a number of communal clashes and killings. A series of sexual atrocities on women were committed. Various dastardly acts had become a familiar sight in the state. Now, as per central government records, Kerala is the most peaceful state with minimum number of crimes. Communal strife, atrocities on women and different types of crimes have been contained during the LDF rule.

There was a slump in agricultural production in the state, particularly of commercial crops, due to the neglect of the central government during both the NDA and UPA rule. The prices also fell leading to a large number of suicides by peasants. The central government had done nothing to prevent further loss of life. It was at this juncture that the LDF government assumed office. It immediately appointed a debt commission to study the farmers' problem and announced a series of steps in support of families of the farmers who committed suicide and those who were in the grip of debt. These steps infused confidence among the peasantry so that the trend of suicide came to a stop in Kerala within a few months of LDF assuming power. The achievement will become evident when one compares it with states like Maharashtra that are still witnessing continued peasant suicides in spite of thousands of crores of rupees spent in the name of Vidarbha package and other schemes.

The LDF government decided to give priority to intervention in the primary sector recognising the fact that the largest section of deprived people belonged to this sector. It gave substantial budgetary support to this sector which has infused confidence among the people to seriously engage in agricultural operations, dairying and fisheries. The LDF government has increased the support price of paddy from Rs 7 per kg in early 2006 to Rs 14 now. This has resulted in the increase of paddy cultivation area by 60,000 acres and paddy production by about 1.25 lakh tonnes. Production of vegetables, milk, fish, eggs and meat also recorded a marked increase as also the income of those engaged in this sector. Cooperative banks have thrived under the patronage of LDF government and through them the government have arranged loans with zero or low interest to the various producers in the primary sector.

Women have gained most under the LDF government. They had been the worst affected by policies of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation pursued by the UPA and UDF governments. In order to get them employed and able to have their own earnings, the LDF government organised them into self help groups (SHGs) which are tied together at panchayath, district and state levels through an organisation called Kudumbasree, which at present has a membership of 37 lakh women organised in about two lakh SHGs. They are engaged in production of paddy, vegetables, milk, meat, in the processing of various agricultural products, in many small scale industrial units and in rendering a number of services.

The majority of workers in Kerala are employed in traditional industries like coir, cashew, handloom, bamboo etc. Because of the utter neglect of these sections by the central government and the previous UDF government, the number of days of work and their wages got dwindled in the course of time. The LDF government intervened in their favour by substantially increasing budget allotments and ensuring that workers got benefit of increase in production and price rise.

During the UDF rule, most of the public sector industries were sustaining big losses. Citing this as a reason that government tried to close down many of them and even sell them. But the united resistance of workers, irrespective of union affiliations, prevented the PSUs sale. The LDF government on assuming office took effective steps with the cooperation of workers and experts with the result that now almost all of them are making profits. This imparted confidence and courage to the government to start nine new industrial concerns in public sector at a time when both the central and other state governments are handing over their public sector units to the private sector.

The LDF government is implementing a major project of providing funds to all BPL families to have their own house. This project is named after E M S Namboodiripad, the first chief minister of Kerala. In the previous two five year plans, about 8.5 lakh houses were provided in this manner mainly under the auspices of local bodies. Now, those who do not have any land of their own are being provided with land to build their own house. Most of the beneficiaries belong to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. If they were to get a house under Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) scheme, they would have had to wait for decades. Also, it is not possible to put up even a hut with the money given by the central government under IAY scheme. In order to complete the scheme within the next year, local bodies have taken loans amounting to Rs 3000 crore from cooperative banks on state government guarantee.

The LDF government has given priority to SCs, STs and minorities in giving assistance of various types. This is based on the policy of social justice adopted by the LDF for the past so many decades. The government had declared that one acre of land would be given to every landless tribal family. This assurance is being implemented now. Also, tens of thousands of landless dalit families have been given small pieces of land. In the matter of accessibility of education, health and so many basic necessities of life in the modern world, Kerala has been able to extend them to almost all of these deprived and dispossessed sections. That is the basis of Kerala having better social justice as compared to many other states.

During the last three matriculation examinations, the pass percentage in Kerala has been more than 90 per cent. This shows that most of the children from backward sections are successfully clearing the examination. This is a welcome change when compared to previous years of UDF regime. Though SCs, STs and some sections of minorities are still lagging behind in various ways, their lot has substantially improved from what it was earlier.

Another area where Kerala is at a higher pedestal as compared to other states is with regard to the public distribution system. This has been acknowledged by the central government itself. Kerala has historically been a deficit state in the matter of food articles. For this reason only, around 45 years ago, the central government allowed Kerala to introduce statutory rationing. Also, most of the articles of daily use come to Kerala from other states. This often gives a chance to traders to fleece the people. The LDF governments over the years have developed a network of civil supplies stores and cooperative consumer stores which make wholesale purchases and distribute the essential commodities at reasonable prices. In 2010, around 35 lakh families belonging to poor and marginalised sections were provided ration rice at Rs 2 per kilogram. Now, the government has decided to extend this arrangement to all families in Kerala. Because of these measures, which cost the government around Rs 1000 crore annually at present, the rate of price rise of essential commodities in Kerala is the lowest. This is acknowledged by the central government.

The public health system in Kerala has a huge network of allopathy, ayurveda and homeopathy hospitals, in every panchayat in the form of PHCs, at the block level in the form of CHCs, and as general hospitals at important centers and as district hospitals in every district headquarter. New buildings and modern equipments have been made available to many of these facilities as also the necessary staff. A Medicine Corporation has been established to ensure proper availability of medicines in hospitals. The health insurance scheme introduced by the central government is implemented in the state in a manner which makes it more patient and family friendly.

For the past few years, there has been no power cut or load shedding in Kerala. This has been achieved by reducing transmission losses substantially and making people introduce CF lamps at their homes and workplaces. New projects to produce energy from a large number of mini and micro units as also from gas-based units are in the offing. Kerala has one of the lowest power tariff rates in the country.

Kerala is confronted with various kinds of environmental issues given the fact that it is having a network of backwaters, 41 rivers, and a large area of marshy and wet lands, along with being highly populated. The previous UDF government had, in the name of development, allowed widespread annihilation of forests, wetlands and privatisation of public property including water bodies. The central government often invokes environment and forest laws to prevent implementation of projects that are highly essential for the development of the state, while at the same time giving sanction to application of hazardous chemicals in agriculture as pesticides and in industry as raw material. In the northern district of Kasargode, a dangerous chemical, Endosulfan, has been sprayed on cashew plantations. Now after so many years of spraying, it has been found to have caused various kinds of disabilities and diseases to young and old. While the central government still adopts a callous attitude towards the problem, the LDF government is giving health care and assistance of different kinds to make the lives of affected people more bearable.

Two questions are to be normally expected: How do you find resources for all these expenditures? Is it enough for a government to bestow attention on socially and economically backward, differently abled and those stricken with diseases?

When the LDF took office in 2006, the annual income of Kerala government was about Rs 10,000 crore. By management of resource mobilisation, this has increased over the years crossing Rs 20,000 crore this year. The dictum followed by LDF is – mobilise more resources and meet higher expenses. This is in contrast to the dictum of UDF – to collect less taxes and spend less. Less expenditure during their tenure meant less benefits and less support to the poorer sections of people. The LDF government has cleared all outstanding arrears of welfare pensions that were due to various sections of deprived people. It has widened the benefits to the deprived by ensuring that there were enough resources to meet such demands.

In Kerala, more than 50 per cent of people belong to middle class sections. Their youth, both girls and boys, are educated. They aspire for better jobs. To ensure them jobs, new avenues have to be created. Due to environmental problems and paucity of industrial raw materials, certain kinds of industry are not acceptable to Kerala. IT, tourism, biotechnology etc are some of the fields more suited. In the IT sector, projects for two major IT parks at Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi and a number of smaller parks in different districts are at different stages of implementation. Already they offer more than 20,000 jobs. Once completed fully, they are expected to offer more than 2,00,000 job opportunities of different kinds. Also the tourism industry has great potential for creating umpteen job opportunities as Kerala is a favourite tourist destination of people from far and near. Necessary groundwork for this has already been carried out. The recent advances in the field of biotechnology has opened up wide areas of development and employment for a state like Kerala. It has rich deposits of rare metals like Titanium, Thorium etc. Schemes to use them for producing high value added products are being prepared, which in future will open up a number of opportunities to the educated sections of the society.

All this shows that the path of development envisaged by the LDF in Kerala offer opportunities of growth not only to forward sections of the society, as is normally done by promoters of globalisation, but to the deprived sections as well. This trajectory of growth will ensure all round development of the country. Also it will prevent confrontation and conflict between various sections of society, usually sponsored by the ruling classes on the basis of religion, caste, ethnicity, language etc.

Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org/

TRIPURA: PEOPLE EXPRESS ANGUISH OVER UNION BUDGET

THE people of Tripura took to streets on March 3 to protest against the anti-people union budget of the UPA-2 government at the centre.

At the call of the CPI (M), protest meetings were held at every subdivision headquarters on the day. Everywhere, hundreds of common people participated in the protest programmes to give vent to their anguish against the pro-corporate and anti-people prescriptions of the union budget which has done nothing to save the aam admi from the back-breaking rises in the prices of essential commodities including food articles.

At Agartala, a number of protest processions took the shape of a large protest meeting at Sakuntala Road of the capital town. The gathering was addressed by CPI (M) state secretariat member Gautam Das as well as party leaders Sankar Dutta and Ratan Das. CPI (M) Sadar district committee secretary presided over the meeting. Gautam Das heavily criticised the anti-people measures of the budget. He said the budget proposes to curtail the already minimal subsidy in food, fuel and fertiliser by another 20,000 crore rupees while doling out more and more tax concessions to the corporates. The budget has included 130 new articles in the ambit of indirect taxes including paper and ink. This budget is essentially for the super rich and true to the class character of our ruling elite. Das urged upon the masses to intensify the struggle against these anti-people policies of the central government.

Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org/

KERALA: FIVE YEARS DEDICATED TO BETTER HEALTHCARE FOR ALL

P K Sreemathi Teacher

HEALTH and education are two of the key areas which have helped Kerala to be counted among the best in the country. Health status is generally measured in terms of mortality indicators like death rate, infant mortality rate and expectation of life at birth among others. Mortality indicators show that the health status of Kerala is far advanced and higher than the all-India average and is even comparable with developed countries. This outstanding progress of health status is achieved through widespread growth of the three systems of medicine in public, private and cooperative sectors, combined with people's health awareness. It is also a result of a development path adopted by the state, since its formation, which gave importance to the social sectors by investing in public health and education.

IN FOREFRONT OF INDIAN STATES

Students of Kerala society and history know that it is the social reform movements dating back to the nineteenth century and running through the first half of the twentieth century and culminating in the formation of the first elected communist government in the state led by Comrade EMS Namboodiripad in 1957 and the land reforms initiated by that government, which gave ownership of land and along with it, dignity to the millions, that have formed the basis for the achievements in social sectors in later years.

The health seeking behaviour of the people is very high in the state, and therefore, improving the quality of healthcare is of utmost importance as well as challenging. In this context, the initiatives rolled out by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government with the support of National Rural Health Mission are pioneering as well as result oriented. The state has been able to initiate many programmes suiting its specific requirements and taking into account the health issues that need immediate intervention.

Kerala is in the forefront of Indian states in effective implementation of decentralisation as envisaged in our Constitution, including in the health sector. Even though we have progressed a lot in terms of providing quality healthcare to our people, there are still a lot of issues that retard our achievements. One of these issues is the emergence and resurgence of vector borne diseases and increase in lifestyle related diseases liked diabetes, hypertension, cancer etc. Kerala has been able to contain the spread of the virus fever which created havoc in the first two years of the present LDF government. State and local level programmes have also been launched to tackle the lifestyle related diseases.

Introduction of ASHA workers in the state is a revolutionary step towards intensifying field level intervention. ASHA scheme was extended to the state of Kerala, only after a detailed assessment on the special needs of the state by the government of India. Around 30,000 ASHA volunteers have been deployed in the state after the induction training. Drug kits have been procured and distributed to all the ASHA workers. In this year’s state budget, a monthly honorarium of Rs 300 has been announced for ASHA workers.

KINDS OF SERVICES

Kerala is one of the few states to adopt a Pain and Palliative Care Policy. The pain and palliative programme aims at the development of community based care services for the bed ridden, elderly, chronically and incurably ill people in the state. This unique initiative has resulted in positive improvement in the care of marginalised groups of people in the state and has won international acclaim.

Life expectancy in Kerala is much higher than the national average. The state has the highest segment of elderly persons in the whole country. To meet the increasing needs of geriatric population, a two-pronged strategy is proposed to be implemented in the state through community level and institution based interventions. A Vayomitram scheme has been launched under which a help desk for elderly has been set up in urban centres and mobile clinics have been deployed to reach healthcare to the needy old aged people at their homes.

The LDF government has initiated steps for upgradation and standardisation of services including diagnostic facilities in the government hospitals and the government’s efforts have paid off, with the general hospital of Eranakulam receiving NABH accreditation recently. It is only the third public sector hospital in the country to have attained this status.

The LDF government has adopted a unique policy regarding women. It has constituted a Gender Advisory Board to coordinate and monitor the implementation of gender empowerment and women’s development programmes of various agencies under the government. It also appointed 14 women protection officers to deal with the complaints regarding domestic violence. The government has decided to form a separate Department for Women’s Development.

The Kudumbasree Mission, which covers 37 lakh families in the state, is one of the major programmes for women’s development and empowerment in the state. The women’s self-help groups have ventured into many income generating activities, including in agriculture, micro enterprises etc, which have brought change in their life.

The Kerala Social Security Mission was formed with a corpus of Rs 65 crore with the objective of providing care and support for the destitute, chronically ill and elderly people. Two novel schemes launched by the mission are free treatment for cancer and major surgeries in case of ailments affecting children under the age of 18, and providing monthly assistance of Rs 300 for those taking care of the physically and mentally challenged persons. Hundreds of children from poor families have benefited from the scheme.

TOWARDS HEALTH FOR ALL

The state has implemented a Kerala Emergency Medical Services project under which advanced life support ambulances have been deployed along the main roads at a distance of 20-30 km each, from where emergency relief will be provided to victims of road accidents and other medical emergencies within a span of 10-15 minutes and victims will be transported to the nearest tertiary care hospital. Hundreds of lives have been saved through this scheme that initially started in the capital district. It is now being extended to all other districts.

The Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme, implemented in the state during the past two years, is expected to cover 40 lakh families under both below-poverty-line (BPL) and above-poverty-line (APL) categories this year. Insurance premium is borne by the state government for all the families, with the central government providing 75 per cent subsidy for only one-fourth of the families in the BPL list. Treatment up to Rs 30,000 is free for all card holders with an additional support for Rs 70,000 for heart, kidney and cancer diseases and surgeries.

Medical education has received tremendous boost under the LDF government with starting of new medical postgraduate courses, increase in MBBS seats, starting of 5 nursing colleges in the government sector and hundreds of nursing, paramedical and other colleges in the private sector. Under an agreement with the majority of the private professional colleges, the LDF government was able to provide admission to students from weaker sections and SC/ST communities in 50 per cent seats in these colleges based on merit.

Ayurveda is the traditional healthcare system of Kerala, practised over thousands of years. Also, ayurveda and homeopathy sectors have got equal attention from the state government in the matter of upgradation of hospitals, posting of doctors, opening of new dispensaries etc. A most modern Panchakarma Research and Development Centre has been completed in the Thiruvananthapuram Ayurveda College.

In short, the last five years have seen the commitment of the LDF government of the state of Kerala to rejuvenate the public healthcare sector in the state. This is all the more significant in view of the fact that the healthcare system in Kerala was in a morbid state, to which it had been plummeted by the previous UDF government. The LDF government’s efforts have led to a steady improvement in the facilities and human resources in the health institutions, thus regaining the lost confidence of the people in the system as well as glory for the state. The best state award for health sector, which Kerala received recently after a national level assessment by IBN7 TV channel, is a recognition of these achievements.

Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org/