Kerala has made remarkable strides in human development in the past 60 years, but it should focus on the enhancement of the ‘productive capacity of goods and ideas’ to make up for the lost time, economist Pulapre Balakrishnan has said.
He was here on Thursday to deliver a lecture on ‘Challenges ahead of Kerala’, organised by the Centre for Research and Education for Social Transformation (CREST) as part of a series to mark the diamond jubilee celebrations of the State.
Grouping the challenges ahead of Kerala as social and environmental, Dr. Balakrishnan said that one of the crucial social problems in Kerala was unemployment, the levels of which were higher compared with the rest of India. It could be addressed only through migration under difficult conditions, mostly to the Arabian Gulf. Their hardship is not properly mentioned in the discourse on Kerala.
“One of the things that is insufficiently recognised is that Kerala is a market economy, integrated with the rest of India. For employment to take place in a market economy, production must take place. For that to happen, what is being produced here should be competitive,” he said. Giving the example of singer K.J. Yesudas in his prime, Dr. Balakrishnan said that the “competitiveness of his music” was unparalleled at one point. “The rice you produce should be better than what is being produced in Andhra Pradesh. The soap you produce should be better than the one in Maharashtra,” he pointed out.
Dr. Balakrishnan said that in this process of building competitiveness, public capital had a fundamental role, whether it was in the public sector or the private sector. Things such as roads, water supply, waste management and electricity were highly important in a manufacturing economy. “Kerala is at the bottom of the heap as far as public capital investment is concerned. The capital outlay in relation to the State budget is low due to the pressure to spend more on salaries and pension.” Also, since the public spending was dependent on borrowing, the debt burden on future generations was growing too.
Farming hit
On the environmental front, Dr. Balakrishnan said the focus should be on the reversal of degradation of natural capital.
“This is the second day of Thiruvathira njattuvela and look at the rain we are getting,” he said. Dr. Balakrishnan said that due to the destruction of environment, Kerala’s agricultural production was on a decline for the past four decades.
He termed “equality of women” as one of the major social problems confronting the State. Quoting statistics, Dr. Balakrishnan said that the representation of women in the Legislative Assembly was abysmal. “Place women in charge of Kerala. The policies would have looked difficult had women been in charge of the legislative process,” Dr. Balakrishnan pointed out. He also asserted the role of the universities in creating ideas for the future. D.D. Nampoothiri, executive director, CREST, was present.
