Gujarat has experienced significant economic growth and development but also faces issues with poverty, inequality, nutrition, and gender inequality. While official poverty data shows a sharp decline, other indicators show a less positive situation. Gender inequality exists in health and nutrition outcomes. Malnutrition levels in Gujarat have improved but it still has work to do to further address the problem, especially severe malnutrition among children. Overall, Gujarat has made progress but still faces challenges in fully addressing human development issues.

1. GUJARAT
Poverty, Inequality, Nutrition
and Gender Inequality in
Gujarat.

2. INTRODUCTION
• Gujarat is referred to as the Jewel of Western India
and has a population of up to 60 million.
• Gujarat was formed in 1960 when the erstwhile
bilingual Bombay State was split into two separate
states; Gujarati speaking Gujarat and Marathi
speaking Maharashtra.
• Gujarat has upto 33 districts and 249 talukas. Major
cities help in the Industrial growth while you would
always love the places to see here which are alot of
them and which boasts the tourism of Gujarat.

3. • Gujarat is one of the developed states in India.
State’s per capita income in 2000-01 was Rs.
12,975 (at 1993-94 prices), which was about
27 per cent higher than the national per
capita income of Rs. 10,254 in the same year.
• The per capita monthly consumption
expenditure in the state was Rs. 678.27 (in
1999-00), which was 25.4 per cent higher than
the national average.

4. POVERTY IN GUJARAT

5. Poverty Concepts and Definitions in India
The poverty line in India is defined as 'the percentage of the population below a
level of expenditure that enables them to consume a minimally defmed number of
calories per day.
The authors were the first to define the poverty line in terms of calories; they
defmed nutritional adequacy at 2250 calories per day.
This was in tum based on the estimated calorie intake requirement specified by the
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR, 1968). The poverty line was defined
as the mid-point of the expenditure class that corresponded to the RDA level of
calorie intake. For 1973-74, this poverty line was derived for rural areas to be Rs.
49.09 and for urban areas as Rs. 56.64 per capita monthly expenditure.
. For estimating the poverty lines in the rural areas in subsequent years, a consumer
price index is worked out based on the CPIAL of food and non-food items36, based on
the actual all-India consumption basket of the poverty line households in 1973-74.
This was adjusted by using a cost ofliving index to reflect the differences in cost of
living on rural areas across states in the base year of the CPIAL series i.e. 1960-61

6. Official Poverty Data and Other Development Indicators in Gujarat
As in the entire country, poverty trends in Gujarat state according to official data have
shown a rapid downturn. However the apparent decline in poverty is not in keeping
with other parameters such as the rate of unemployment and foodgrain availability
The rate of decline in poverty is different in rural and urban areas, as figure 8.1
indicates. The decline in rural poverty according to official data has been slower
than that of urban poverty, both in absolute and percentage terms.
In fact rural poverty has increased slightly in absolute terms between 1993-94 and
2004-05, while the decline in terms of percentage has been marginal in this period. On
the other hand, the percentage of urban poor between 1987-88 and 2004- 05 shows a
marked decline.
The official data on poverty indicate a sharp decline, especially in the urban areas.
Rural poverty according to the official data has also declined, although slowly.
However other measures of poverty as well as other indicators of development do
not show such a positive situation in the state. Poverty measured by more broad-
based indicators (the BPL Census method) results in larger percentages of the
population being recorded as being poor. Apart from this, other indicators of
development in the state- specifically employment- indicate a decline in the state's
performance.

7. Gender Inequality in Terms of Health and Nutrition in India
Gender inequality is one of the major problems faced by the human society. It refers
to unequal and biased treatment towards female. Fortunately, over a period of time,
things have slowly changed. However, this is still a very serious and widespread
problem in society. Inequality is lack of equal distribution and Gender inequality is
unequal and biased treatment between male and female. In India discrimination
against girls begins before birth and spans the entire life. In 1901, the country had a
female to male sex ratio of 972 girls to every 1000 boys. In the 2001 census, it was
933 to 1000.
Gender Equality has many dimensions:
•Equal access to basic social services, including education and health.
•Equal opportunities for participation in political and economic decision-
making.
•Equal reward for equal work. Equal protection under the law.
•Elimination of discrimination by gender and violence against women.
•Equal rights of citizens in all areas of life, both public - such as the
workplace - and private such as the home.

8. Gujarat: State Initiatives
Government of Gujarat has formulated the State Policy for Gender Equity as "NARI
GAURAV NITI - 2006" for overall development and empowerment of women of the
state. In an effort to bring about equity and equality between women and men in the
development process to create a gender-just society, the Nari Gauvav Niti (GEP) has set
the following goals:
•Creating an enabling environment for enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental
freedom by women on equal basis with men in all spheres- personal, political, economic,
social, cultural and civil. This includes right to life, right to health care and quality life,
right to quality education, right to employment, equal remuneration, social security and
right to decision making .
•Shared responsibility for children and home.
•Mainstreaming gender perspective in the development processes, policies and
programmes .
•Strengthening participation of civil society, in particular women's groups, networks and
organizations .
•Eradicate all forms of violence against women and girl child .
•Strengthening legal systems to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women .
•Eliminate, step by step, prejudices as well as customary and other practices that are
gender discriminatory by active participation and involvement of both men and women.

9. Special Initiatives for Women:
•Janani Suraksha Yojana
•Chiranjeevi Yojana
•Sakhi Mandal / Mission Manglam
•Saraswati Sadhana Yojana
•Vidhya Sadhana Yojana
•SABLA Scheme
•Kishori Shakti Yojana

10. India IHDI Report: Some Highlights
The average loss due to inequality is 32 percent at the All-India level. It is the
highest for Madhya Pradesh (36 percent) and Chhattisgarh (35 percent) and the
lowest for Kerala (17 percent). The loss due to inequality is higher than the
national level in the states of Bihar, Uttarakhand, Orissa, Jharkhand, Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
Assam, Bihar, Gujarat (30%), Jharkhand, Karnataka, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil
Nadu and West Bengal improve their ranking after adjustment for inequality while
Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar
Pradesh lose their ranks.
The loss due to inequality is the highest with respect to education dimension
(43 percent), followed by health (34 percent) and income (16 percent). In
other words, the potential loss due to inequality is the highest in the
education sector. The situation is similar across states
India, with a global HDI value of 0.504, falls in the category of countries with
'Medium Human Development'. The loss in global HDI due to inequality is much
higher in India (32 percent) than in the world as a whole (22 percent) (UNDP, 2010;
p. 155).

11. Malnutrition in Gujarat
Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of
energy and/or nutrients. The term malnutrition covers 2 broad groups of
conditions. One is ‘undernutrition’—which includes stunting (low height for age),
wasting (low weight for height), underweight (low weight for age) and
micronutrient deficiencies or insufficiencies (a lack of important vitamins and
minerals). The other is overweight, obesity and diet-related noncommunicable
diseases (such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer).
The Gujarat development model of private sector-led growth had been
criticized for placing excessive emphasis on growth and less on human
development indices
The growth model is incompatible with human development
requirements.?

12. : not bad at all, if one looks at change rather than raw numbers. If one were to rank it,
Gujarat would figure somewhere in the middle of the national pecking order in terms of
child development, which would seem to partially bear out Narendra Modi's critics that
even with high growth, Gujarat does not seem to care as much for its children as it
should. The truth is the growth versus human development juxtaposition is flawed.
Gujarat is neither among the worst nor the best in terms of child malnourishment. In fact,
the real laggards are also high-growth states such as Andhra Pradesh (49 percent
malnourished), Bihar (82 percent), Haryana (43 percent), Rajasthan(43 percent), and,
surprisingly Sheila Dikshit's rich Delhi (50 percent).
But other high-growth states do well on malnutrition, with Maharashtra having
more than 77 percent normal kids (i.e. not malnourished), Madhya Pradesh 72
percent, and Uttarakhand 75 percent.
Clearly, Gujarat has topped in terms of the magnitude of improvements in addressing
malnutrition. But there is no reason for it to take it easy. The number of severely
malnourished children in this group of 38.77 percent is a high 4.56 percent for Gujarat.
Bihar has 26 percent severely malnourished children, but it will be poor consolation for
Gujarat, which surely has more resources to deal with the problem.

13. What is being done to address malnutrition?
The Decade aims to catalyse policy commitments that result in
measurable action to address all forms of malnutrition. The
aim is to ensure all people have access to healthier and more
sustainable diets to eradicate all forms of malnutrition
worldwide.