People-centric solution must

Hyderabad Karnataka is now Kalyana Karnataka. What is more, a separate secretariat for the development of the region has been announced by the chief minister and will expectedly be established soon enough.

The region comprising the six districts of Bidar, Kalburgi, Raichur, Koppal, Yadgir and Ballary already enjoys special status under Article 371J of the Constitution. And since 2013, the Hyderabad-Karnataka Regional Development Board has served as the special purpose vehicle to lead the region’s development efforts in addition to those of the state.

Will these well-meaning initiatives make a difference to the lives of the people in the erstwhile Hyderabad Karnataka region? Or will these changes serve as the mere chronicle of underdevelopment foretold?

Transforming the lives of the people of the region presupposes two necessary conditions: First, understanding the enormity of the challenge that the development of Kalyana Karnataka poses. The underdevelopment of the region is endemic, endogenous, and chronic; and the response therefore has to be context-specific, resource-sensitive, and multistakeholder-driven.

Consider the following facts: the only two aspirational districts, a euphemism for chronic backwardness — Raichur and Yadgir — are located in the region. Of the 39 ‘most backward’ districts identified by the High-Powered Committee on Redressal of Regional Imbalances, 21 are located in Hyderabad Karnataka.

An analysis of government data helps understand better the spatial and temporal pattern of underdevelopment in the region. The state government measures progress on the basis of the Comprehensive Composite Development Index (CCDI), comprising 35 indicators grouped into agriculture, industry, social infrastructure, economic and human development sectors.

Data analysis of the performance of the region shows the 10 worst performing taluks by the maximum number of indicators, are located in the region, with as many as seven in Kalaburagi district alone. What is worse, these 10 taluks were categorised as ‘most backward’ in 2001, and 15 years after in 2015, remain in the same category.

Simply put, there has been no progress at all or for an entire generation. On human development indicators, a few representative data points from NFHS IV suffice: malnutrition in Kalaburagi district is unconscionable, with over 56% children wasted, 52% stunted, and 57% underweight.

In Yadgir district, only 32% of the women are literate; of the rural households surveyed, a mere 10% in Yadgir, 11% in Kalaburagi, and 12% in Raichur, were using improved sanitation facilities, despite the Swachh Bharat mission. The direct consequence has been that time has stood still for the people of the region, and the improvements in human development indicators less than commensurate with the humungous amounts of money spent for decades.

Second, the government must build on the Kalyana Karnataka announcement, break from the past, and demonstrate the political resolve to make a bold departure from conventional development praxis. This parlous state of affairs is not for paucity of funds or for the lack of effort, to be fair, successive governments have tried but with mixed results, to catalyse development in the region.

In the past decade, under the Special Development Plan alone, over Rs 7,000 crore has been spent in the six districts of the region, and over Rs 2,100 crore in the 10 most backward taluks. Yet, the time is now to call out the intrinsic failing in the development strategy of the past.

It has been one that was excessively supply-driven, contractor-led, and brick and mortar-based. In sharp contrast, social mobilisation to build incentives for collective community action, capacity—building and training to enhance capabilities, and strengthening the community-based institutions to help improve the quality and adequacy of public services have received much less policy attention and even lesser programme design detailing.

The singular failure has been in recognising that community is important, more than the contractors, in the development process; and hence, the need to focus on and prioritise human development — health, education, and livelihood. The challenge of ushering in Kalyana Karnataka and meeting the aspirations of the people is not the problem of government alone.

There is need for the three major stakeholders —government, private sector, and the community — to partner in sustained engagement in the region. Such engagement should be guided by evidence-based prioritisation of spending on human development, eschewing flushing of funds in construction work that currently predominates.

Resource allocation

In its place, significantly enhancing resource allocation to developing human capabilities and strengthening community engagement painstakingly, even if time consuming, must become the norm. To do this, data-based decision—making must constitute the central principle and must be mainstreamed as a policy priority on a government-wide basis.

A good starting point is to acknowledge that the people of Kalyana Karnataka need to be placed at the centre of the solution — to give them voice, capacity, and hence agency — to act not as mere beneficiaries or the recipients of largesse from the state, but as agents of change actively participating in the governance process.

If there is one imperative to usher in Kalyana Karnataka, it is to democratise development. Inspiration must be drawn from great reformer Basavanna, reading in context one of his Vachanas, and I paraphrase, “The rich will make temples for Siva. What shall I, a poor man, do? My legs are pillars, the body the shrine, the head the cupola of gold”.

This remarkably prescient piece of poetry of the great reformer needs to be understood both for its profundity and its practical application in the context, especially today.

The principal challenge is how we might enhance productivity inclusiveness, and enable for the citizens of Kalyana Karnataka the minimum freedom that they need today — from the poverty of health and education — and the greater freedom they need tomorrow — of economic and social opportunities — identical with at least the middle class, if not the rich, in the rest of the state. This must constitute the heart of Kalyana Karnataka.

(The writer is Director, Public Affairs Centre, Bengaluru)