Identifying challenges for improvement of human development in Karnataka, the Human Development Index report 2022 noted that five Kalyana Karnataka districts continue to be low performing regions in the State while Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s home district Haveri is among the bottom five districts in terms of HDI in Karnataka.
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While the low performing districts identified are Yadgir, Kalaburagi, Raichur, Koppal and Bellari, the report of the fourth HDI, released earlier this week, said Ballari, Bidar, Gadag, Bagalkot, Vijayapura and Haveri need focused approach to address deprivations in health, education and quality of life. Ranked 27th in the State out of 30 districts, Haveri district’s Savanur taluk is also in the bottom 10 taluks.
Increase in HDI
Bengaluru stands at the top in terms of human development achievement and can be categorised as districts with high human development as per UNDP international comparison, the report said, adding that Dakshina Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, Udupi and Kodagu follow Bengaluru. Bagalkot, Ballari, Ramanagar, Mandya, Yadgir and Koppal districts have shown an increase in HDI that is significantly high.
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The report said that between 1990 and 2021, India’s HDI value changed from 0.434 to 0.633, registering a change of 45.9 %. Karnataka’s HDI is above national average and in 2019-2020, Karnataka stood 11th in the country. From 1990 to 2021, the index changed from 0.432 to 0.644, indicating achievement in human development increased from 43 % to 64.4 %.
It noted that the life expectancy in Karnataka has increased to 69.5 years while maternal mortality ratio has come down to 83 per lakh live births in 2022 to 69 in 2022.
The fourth Human Development report 2022 is presented with a specific action-oriented agenda to reach the $ one trillion GDP through human development milestones in the sustainable development goals, and link SDG to vision 2030.
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Health concerns
Maternal Mortality rate is high in Dharwad, Chikkaballapur, Bidar, Hassan, Haveri, Shivamogga, Tumakuru and Chamarajanagar due to 45.7 % of pregnant women in the age group between 15 years and 49 years are anaemic or malnourished. The report noted that an equal number of women have high blood pressure and only 44.7 % pregnant women consume iron folic acid.
Bengaluru, Kodagu and Ramanagar have high percentage of adults with blood pressure, diabetes and obesity, while Koppal, Yadgir and Raichur have high incidence of malnourished children and anaemic women.
High dropout rates at 2 lakh children in secondary education and 4,687 high schools has been flagged as a matter of concern along with lack of sanitation and transportation facilities in rural areas.
Gender inequality
The report noted that Karnataka stands 17th in Gender Inequality Index among 22 major states in the country. This is mainly because of the poor political representation by women and huge gender gap in labour force participation rate at 43.6 %, it pointed out.
Though there is significant achievement in HDI of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, the report said that the progress is not complete and the gap continues to exist. There is a need to prioritise spending for reducing deprivation, it added.