Fifty years ago, Kerala was one of the poorest states in India; today, it has become a state that has eradicated extreme poverty. In the 1970s, Kerala’s average income was only two-thirds of the Indian average. This difference persisted into the 1980s. The miracle that unfolded in the subsequent decades transformed Kerala into one of India’s most prosperous states.
Even when poor, Kerala was different. Despite having low income, Kerala’s highest average literacy rate, healthcare facilities, life expectancy, and local development in India earned it the recognition of a ‘model state’ among economists in the 1970s and 80s. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has praised Kerala’s development model in his works for prioritising health and education, despite limited resources and a poor background.
The credit for Kerala surpassing many North Indian states and achieving the top position cannot be claimed by a single political party alone. All Chief Ministers, Ministers, party workers, and non-political movements that have led Kerala over the last half-century have together guided the state to its fame as ‘God’s Own Country.’ If anyone boasts that the above achievements are solely the merit of a single party’s rule, the historical stones etched with the work of others will not simply crumble.
While exulting in this newly declared achievement, both the ruling and opposition parties must subject the honesty and transparency of this declaration to self-examination. It must not be forgotten that Kerala’s Human Development Indices have always been compared with those of developed Western countries, not with the poor states of North India. When placed on the terrain of these comparisons, the question arises: how significant and glorious are our first places and declarations?
It is at the point where the ruling party declares ‘Extreme Poverty-Free Kerala’ and the opposition states, ‘The declaration is a blatant lie,’ that the extremely poor and poor of Kerala are collectively bewildered. The mega-star’s statement—made at the very venue of the Chief Minister’s ‘Extreme Poverty-Free Kerala’ declaration—was, “Development is not about high roads and buildings; we have only been freed from extreme poverty, poverty still remains. Astonishing development holds no value before those who are starving.”
The essence of development is to empower every citizen to meet their basic needs. The inverse should not be repeated, where the poor become extremely poor and the rich become extremely rich while striving to fulfill basic needs. If this happens, the efforts to eliminate extreme poverty will have to be repeated, turning it into a vicious cycle. Kerala must transition from eliminating extreme poverty to eliminating poverty itself.
Approximately 64,000 families, selected through a survey, were subjected to this extreme poverty eradication process. It is indeed commendable that the attention and care of the administration were directed towards them, leading to their liberation. These efforts must have meaningful continuity. Inattentiveness and negligence must be corrected.
The journey towards matching developed countries in fields like healthcare, education, agriculture, and industry should not be slowed down. Even while holding the reputation of a state with excellent healthcare, sections of the population in Kerala still remain who do not receive timely medical treatment. It is not auspicious that vegetables soaked in chemicals and fish injected with ammonia, transported from neighbouring states, are fearlessly infiltrating Kerala’s market squares, the dining rooms, and the stomachs of Malayalis.
While national highways connecting districts and states are being constructed and demolished, village roads remain broken. While the palace avenues where the ultra-rich reside are adorned with light pillars and flowering trees, the worker’s foot wound is being rushed by muddy water, as gutters overflow and roads are drenched, turning into pools after a single rain. Such double standards in the approach to development must be eliminated. The government should not attempt to serve the ultra-rich by declaring ‘extreme poverty has been eradicated,’ but should instead turn towards the poor. Let us dream of a prosperous Kerala where everyone has wealth, and let us take action to realize that dream. “We can no longer tolerate structural injustices in which those who have more always have more, and, conversely, those who have less become increasingly poor” writes Pope Leo XIV in the previously unpublished Introduction to his new book, in Italian, La forza del Vangelo. La fede cristiana in 10 parole (The Power of the Gospel: The Christian Faith in 10 Words), which will be published on 20 November by the Vatican Publishing House (Libreria Editrice Vaticana).
“We need to be increasingly committed to resolving the structural causes of poverty. This is a pressing need that ‘cannot be delayed, not only for the pragmatic reason of its urgency for the good order of society, but because society needs to be cured of a sickness which is weakening and frustrating it, and which can only lead to new crises. Welfare projects, which meet certain urgent needs, should be considered merely provisional responses.’ I can only state once more that inequality ‘is the root of social ills.’ Indeed, ‘it frequently becomes clear that, in practice, human rights are not equal for all’” (Pope Leo XIV, Dilexi Te, 94).
