By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan released the Fourth Human Development Report of Madhya Pradesh titled “Human Development through Infrastructure” here today.
Speaking on the occasion, Chouhan pointed out that infrastructure development not only provides impetus to economic growth but is also a catalyst for human development and improving the quality of life of the people. Infrastructure, whether it is roads, electricity, communications, financial services or the provision of transport, water and sanitation in urban areas, all contribute directly to improving living standards.
The Minister for Finance Raghavji said that the purpose of bringing out the Fourth Human Development Report is to present a detailed picture of the infrastructural shortcomings facing the state today, which have been the subject of discussion down the years. The report lists the challenges Madhya Pradesh faces today and outlines a roadmap to meet these challenges, which can serve as a guidebook for all future programmes.
The report is different from the previous report in that it is not focused on the statistics about education, health, per capita income, but on infrastructure.
The Fourth Human Development Report has been prepared jointly by the Directorate of Institutional Finance and a non-governmental organization, Sanket. Eminent scholar Dr. Sompal, Dr. N.J. Kurien and Prof. Suresh Tendulkar have also made significant contributions. The report, published by Oxford University Press, has been released in both English and Hindi. To broad base its distribution, copies are being made available for sale in all important cities. The report comprises seven chapters. The first chapter discusses how infrastructure influences human development and how infrastructure speeds up and imparts vibrancy to human development.
The second chapter focuses on physical connectivity, presenting a detailed review of roads, railway and transport in the state. The report points out that although Madhya Pradesh has historically been known to have a poor road network, greater mobilization of financial resources by the government in recent times has resulted in speeding up road construction. New methods like Bond-Build-Operate Transfer have been utilized to improve the condition of state highways while schemes like Farmers’ Road Fund and Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana have been used for constructing and refurbishing major district roads and village roads.
The third chapter is devoted to electricity. Following concerted efforts made by the Madhya Pradesh Government the state is expected to be self-sufficient in power supply by 2010-11. The fourth chapter is devoted to communication infrastructure, analysing the ways in which communication resources like post and telegraph, telephones, computers and information technology can impact on human development. Taking the example of E-Choupal, the report shows how information technology can help increase the per capita income of people, which is one of the basic indicators of human development.
The fifth chapter discusses basic problems faced in urban renewal and development. These include housing, providing basic amenities in slums, burgeoning traffic on roads, unregulated expansion of urban areas and urban water supply and sanitation. The report outlines the state government’s response to each of these challenges.
The impact on human development of financial facilities for citizens is discussed in the sixth chapter. The report points out that the banking sector has performed below targets in the economic development of Madhya Pradesh over the past several decades. The report points out that banks and other financial institutions are now playing an important role in raising the income of people through self-help groups.
The final chapter discusses state’s human development situation on the basis of the three traditional parameters- education, health and per capita income. It gives details of the achievements in education in the state and sees the next big challenge to be improving the quality of education at primary level. The report also outlines steps being taken by the state government to improve the performance in health sector.
Director, Institutional Finance Ashok Varnwal expressed gratitude to all those whose contributions have made the publication of the report possible. ([email protected])