Beyond income: the Kerala-Haryana-Bihar comparison and public facilities

Detail

1. The comparison table (Class 10, Tables 1.3–1.4)

State	Per capita NSDP 2023-24, current prices (ES 2024-25)	IMR per 1,000 live births (2020)	Literacy rate % (2017-18)	Net Attendance Ratio, secondary, ages 15–17 (2017-18)
Haryana	₹3,25,759	28	82	73
Kerala	₹2,81,001	6	94	94
Bihar	₹60,337	27	62	69

• Per capita NSDP (Net State Domestic Product ÷ state population) is the average income of one person in a state. The figures are for 2023-24, at current prices, from the Economic Survey 2024-25.
• Income ranking: Haryana > Kerala > Bihar.
• Haryana ÷ Kerala = 3,25,759 ÷ 2,81,001 ≈ 1.16 times.
• Haryana ÷ Bihar = 3,25,759 ÷ 60,337 ≈ 5.4 times.

• Kerala ÷ Bihar ≈ 4.7 times.

• Outcome ranking: Kerala is far ahead on health and education. Haryana is richer but falls behind on the indicators that matter most for a good life.

• Lesson: a higher average income does not automatically mean better health or schooling.

2. Defining the indicators

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)

• IMR = (number of babies who die before their first birthday in a year ÷ live births in that year) × 1,000.
• Worked example: a district has 50,000 live births in a year and 300 infant deaths. IMR = 300 ÷ 50,000 × 1,000 = 6, which is Kerala's level.
• Kerala (2020): 6 of every 1,000 babies die before age one. Haryana (2020): 28.
• NCERT arithmetic slip: NCERT says Haryana's IMR is "nearly three times" Kerala's. In fact 28 ÷ 6 ≈ 4.7 times, so the gap is bigger than the text says.
• NCERT inconsistency: the text says the IMR data are "during 2018", but the table heading says 2020.
• Latest national figure: India's IMR fell from 39 (2014) to 27 per 1,000 live births (2021), according to the Sample Registration System (SRS) Statistical Report 2021 [4].
• Related measures:
• Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) counts deaths in the first 28 days of life per 1,000 live births. Kerala's NMR is 4 (SRS 2021), already better than the SDG target of ≤12 by 2030 [4].
• Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) counts mothers' deaths from pregnancy-related causes per 1 lakh live births. Kerala's MMR is 20 (SRS), already inside the SDG target of ≤70 [4].

Literacy rate

• Literacy rate = the literate share of the population aged 7 years and above (the Census rule).
• Kerala 94%, Haryana 82%, Bihar 62% (2017-18).

Net Attendance Ratio (NAR)

• NAR = (children of the official age group who attend school at that level ÷ all children in that age group) × 100.
• In this table, the level is secondary school and the age group is 15–17.
• Over-age and under-age pupils are left out, so NAR can never go above 100.
• Bihar's NAR is 69 (2017-18). So about one-third of its 15–17-year-olds are not in secondary school. In NCERT's words, "nearly one-third of your class friends would be missing."

Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER)

• GER = (total enrolment at a level, of any age ÷ population of the official age group) × 100.
• Over-age and under-age pupils are counted, so GER can be more than 100%.
• Worked example: a village has 100 children aged 15–17. Of these, 70 attend secondary school. Another 40 older or younger pupils also attend secondary classes.
• NAR = 70 ÷ 100 × 100 = 70%.
• GER = (70 + 40) ÷ 100 × 100 = 110%.
• The high GER hides the fact that 30 children of the right age are out of school.

3. Latest data that extend the NCERT picture

SDG India Index 2023-24 (NITI Aayog)

• The SDG India Index is NITI Aayog's composite score (0–100) that ranks states on how far they have gone towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
• Kerala scores 79, joint top with Uttarakhand. Bihar scores 57, the lowest of all states (2023-24) [2][3].
• The range of state scores rose from 42–69 (2018) to 57–79 (2023-24) [2].
• India's overall score: 57 (2018) → 66 (2020-21) → 71 (2023-24) [2][3].
• The ranking matches NCERT's story: Kerala is at the top, and Bihar remains at the bottom even while it improves.

NFHS-5 (National Family Health Survey, 2019-21)

• NFHS is a large household survey of health, nutrition and family welfare, run by the Union Health Ministry.
• Stunting means a child is too short for their age, a sign of long-term undernutrition. Among children under 5 across India, it fell only slightly, from 38% (NFHS-4, 2015-16) to 36% (NFHS-5) [6].
• Bihar's Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is 2.98 (NFHS-5). TFR is the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. Bihar is well above the replacement level of 2.1 [6].
• In Bihar, the share of women who operate a bank account rose from 26% to 77% between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5 [7]. Access to services can improve even in a low-income state.
• Kerala's new problem: 34–46% of Kerala's women are overweight or obese (NFHS-5). Kerala also has the highest share of men with high or very high blood sugar, at 27% [7]. Kerala has solved the old problems (infant deaths, illiteracy) and now faces lifestyle diseases.

India in the Human Development Report (HDR) 2025, UNDP

• India's HDI value rose from 0.676 (2022) to 0.685 (2023). Its rank improved from 133 to 130 out of 193 countries [5].
• India is in the "medium human development" group. It is close to the "high" threshold of HDI ≥ 0.700 [5].
• The gains came mainly from mean years of schooling and per capita income [5].
• Theme of HDR 2025: "A Matter of Choice: People and Possibilities in the Age of AI" [5].

4. Gender and schooling gaps: rural Uttar Pradesh (Table 1.5, Activity 2)

Category	Male	Female
Literacy rate, rural population	76%	54%
Literacy, rural children 10–14	90%	87%
Rural children 10–14 attending school	85%	82%

• (a) Literacy is 76% for rural males and only 54% for rural females.
• The problem is not just that many adults never went to school.

• Many children are out of school today, so the gap will carry into the next generation.

• (b) Out of school: 100 − 82 = 18% of girls and 100 − 85 = 15% of boys aged 10–14.

• Illiterate in the same age group: 100 − 87 = 13% of girls and 100 − 90 = 10% of boys.

• (c) It is disturbing that so many 10–14-year-olds are still illiterate more than 75 years after Independence.

• Missed constitutional goal: a Directive Principle aimed at free and compulsory education for all children up to age 14 by 1960. The target was missed.
• It later became a legal right under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009. Details are in human-capital.

5. Regional disparity

• Regional disparity means that income, infrastructure and human development are uneven across states.
• Broadly, the richer south and west are ahead of the central and eastern states (Bihar, UP, MP, Jharkhand, Odisha).
• The SDG India Index (NITI Aayog) ranks states on a single composite score. The latest edition is 2023-24: Kerala 79, Bihar 57 [2]. (Scaffold note: check whether a newer edition has come out.)

6. Why income is not enough: public facilities

What money cannot buy

• NCERT: "Money in your pocket cannot buy all the goods and services that you may need to live well."
• Usually money cannot buy:
• a pollution-free environment;
• unadulterated medicines (medicines that are not fake or mixed with cheap stuff), unless you move to a community that already has them;
• protection from infectious diseases, unless the whole community takes preventive steps. One family cannot stop malaria alone.

Public facilities

• Public facilities are goods and services that are best and most cheaply provided collectively: security, schools, health care, a clean environment.
• Why collective provision is cheaper:
• One security arrangement for a whole locality costs less than a guard for every house.

• You can study because other children also want to study, and because people believe the government should open schools.

• When public facilities are missing: many girls still cannot reach high school because there is no school nearby, no safe transport or no toilets.

• The theory of public goods is in market-structures-competition:
• non-rival: one person's use does not reduce what is left for others;
• non-excludable: you cannot stop people who do not pay from using it.

Kerala's secret

• Kerala's low IMR comes from the "adequate provision of basic health and educational facilities" (NCERT).
• The chain of cause and effect:
• educated mothers → better care of babies, earlier visits to doctors, higher immunisation;
• health centres close by → safe deliveries in institutions;
• result → IMR of 6 (2020) and NMR of 4 (2021) [4].

Public Distribution System (PDS)

• The PDS is the government network of ration shops (fair price shops) that sell food grains at subsidised prices. How it works is covered in agri-marketing-msp-pds.
• Where the PDS works well, people's health and nutrition are likely to be better.
• Tamil Nadu: 90% of rural people used a ration shop, against West Bengal: 35% (NCERT data).
• Why rural Tamil Nadu is better off:
• wide use of the PDS shows that the system actually delivers cheap food;
• cheap, reliable food gives food security;
• food security leads to better nutrition and lower illness.

Community participation

• Community participation means citizens working together for shared goals, for example cleaning public places, planting trees or running a school committee.
• It creates local public goods without any market exchange. Nobody buys or sells anything.

What makes facilities work (Ex. 3)

• Good facilities depend on more than the money spent. They also need:
• governance (honest, accountable administration);
• staff presence, since teachers and doctors must actually turn up;
• community demand, since people must ask for the services;
• social norms, for example whether families are willing to send girls to school;
• local participation.

Prelims Hooks

• Per capita income order (2023-24): Haryana > Kerala > Bihar. IMR (2020) best: Kerala (6). Haryana (28) is richer but has a higher IMR than Bihar (27).
• NCERT's "nearly three times" is wrong. Haryana's IMR is 28 ÷ 6 ≈ 4.7 times Kerala's.
• NAR ≤ 100 always. GER can exceed 100, because it counts over-age and under-age pupils.
• Literacy rate (Census) is measured for the population aged 7 years and above.
• India's IMR is 27 per 1,000 live births (SRS 2021), down from 39 in 2014 [4]. Kerala's NMR is 4 and MMR is 20 (SRS) [4].
• SDG India Index 2023-24 (NITI Aayog): Kerala 79 (joint top with Uttarakhand), Bihar 57 (lowest), India 71 [2][3].
• HDR 2025 (UNDP): India ranks 130 of 193, with an HDI of 0.685 (2023), in the "medium" category. "High" starts at 0.700 [5].
• NFHS-5 (2019-21): stunting among under-5 children fell from 38% to 36%. Bihar's TFR is 2.98, against a replacement level of 2.1 [6].
• PDS use in rural areas (NCERT): Tamil Nadu 90% vs West Bengal 35%.
• Free and compulsory education up to age 14 by 1960 was a Directive Principle. It became a legal right through the RTE Act, 2009.

Mains Points

• Growth vs development (GS-III): Haryana earns about 1.16 times Kerala's per capita income but has about 4.7 times its infant mortality. Kerala has the top SDG score of 79 (2023-24) [2]. This shows that spending on health and education turns income into well-being. Use it to argue for public investment in human capital, and against judging progress by GDP alone.
• Public goods and state capacity (GS-II/III): clean air, disease control and security are cheapest when provided collectively. The Tamil Nadu (90%) vs West Bengal (35%) PDS gap shows that governance and delivery matter as much as the money allocated. Link to reforms such as the NFSA, ONORC and DBT.
• Kerala model and its limits: Kerala's early gains now face a second-generation burden. 34–46% of its women are overweight or obese, and 27% of its men have high blood sugar (NFHS-5) [7]. Development goals must move from survival to managing non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
• Regional and gender disparity: Bihar's low NAR (69) and high TFR (2.98) [6], and rural UP's 22-point gender gap in literacy, justify targeted schemes and needs-based transfers from the Finance Commission. They also show why social norms and community demand must be built alongside infrastructure.