Loading...

Assessing the 'Kerala Model' : Education is Necessary but Not Sufficient

Kerala is often praised as being more developed, in some respects, than the rest of India: several development indicators, such as literacy rates and health, suggest that Kerala is much more successful than the rest of India. However, a growing minority of observers have expressed disappointment wit...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: John Simister
Format: Printed Book
Published: JOURNAL OF SOUTH ASIAN DEVELOPMENT 2011 6: 1 2011
Online Access:http://10.26.1.76/ks/004230.pdf
Description
Summary:Kerala is often praised as being more developed, in some respects, than the rest of India: several development indicators, such as literacy rates and health, suggest that Kerala is much more successful than the rest of India. However, a growing minority of observers have expressed disappointment with Kerala. Some writers suggest Kerala is poorer than we might expect given its high literacy rate; other writers argue that women in Kerala are not as empowered as previous researchers implied. This article tests the hypothesis that successes which have been achieved by the `Kerala model' are mainly a result of education. This `education hypothesis' is contrasted with various other possible explanations of Kerala's success, which suggest Kerala is unique in some way-for reason(s) which are disputed and which often seem impossible to test by scientific analysis. However, Kerala is not successful in every respect; this article examines someremaining problems in Kerala.