I have written a couple of times about the Tamil idea that their Human Development Index is highest in India (it is not, they are 11th); and their claiming parity with EU countries (they are higher than EU countries like Albania, which is why they say "EU countries" than actual names of those countries).
However, it is important also to look at HDI WITHIN Tamilnadu. Studying that reveals something very interesting.
In 2017, the districts of Kanyakumari, Virudhunagar, Thoothukudi, Coimbatore and the tri-districts Chennai, Kanchipuram and Thiruvallur led TN in HDI.
Now, the districts of Chennai-Kanchipuram-Thiruvallur, Kanyakumari, Thoothukudi and Coimbatore are also the most urbanized districts in Tamilnadu. This means that most of these districts' population lives in urban areas.
Most importantly, these have the least number of people engaged in agriculture.
The agricultural states of Tamilnadu, such as Thanjavur, Thiruvarur are low in Human Development Index.
Why is this?
This is not a surprising result - the Human Development Index uses three components:
- Life expectancy
- Number of years of school education; and
- Gross income of the district, per capita
Two of these components, Gross income per capita and years of school education, are against a predominantly agricultural, rural population. This is because a population that mainly works on agriculture in small holdings has little benefit from school education.
That is, the index that we are all quoting back and forth is always going to show urbanized districts in a better light; it is going to show urbanized states in a better light; and it is going to show a country where a majority live from agriculture in a poor light.
This is the reality of HDI - it apples within Tamilnadu; and within India.
The 10 states and UTs above Tamilnadu (such as Goa, Delhi, Kerala) in HDI are all urbanized (including Punjab). (Himachal Pradesh is an anomaly)
To use such a skewed measure internally in India between states or between districts is absurd.
That those who claim to prize agriculture, such as the ruling DMK/Communists in Tamilnadu, breastbeat about HDI is nothing less than amazing to me. It is contemptuous of farming and agricultural districts even within the state. How are these people going to understand the problems of agricultural districts within the state?
If we used their standard, we will pour all our money into Chennai, Coimbatore and Thoothukudi.
