Income and other Criteria

Let us examine this through an example. Table 1.3 gives the per capita income of Punjab, Kerala and Bihar. Actually, these figures are of Per Capita Net State Domestic Product at Current Prices for 2002-03. Let us ignore what this complicated term exactly means. Roughly we can take it to be per capita income of the state. We find that of the three, Punjab has the highest per capita income and Bihar is at the bottom. This means that, on an average, a person in Punjab earned Rs 26,000 in one year whereas, on an average, a person in Bihar would earn only around Rs 5,500. So, if per capita income were to be used as the measure of development, Punjab will be considered the most developed and Bihar the least developed state of the three.

Now, let us look at certain other data pertaining to these states given in Table 1.4. The first column of the table shows that in Kerala, out of 1000 children born alive 11 died before completing one year of age but in Punjab the proportion of children dying within one year of birth is 49, which is nearly five times more. On the other hand, the per capita income of Punjab is much more than Kerala as shown in Table 1.3. Just think of how dear you are to your parents, think of how every one is so happy when a child is born. The problem does not end with Infant Mortality Rate. The last column shows that more that half of the children in Bihar do not even get to go to school.