Inter-district variation of development in Southern region

Abstract

The level of development of different districts of the States of Andhra Pradesh, Kamataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu belonging to the Southern Region of the country was obtained with the help of composite index based on an optimum combination of thirty economic indicators. Seventy eight districts of the southern region were included in the analysis. The data on the economic indicators for the year 1991-92 have been used in the study. The district of Thrissur from Kerala ranked first and the district of Bidar (Kamataka) was ranked last in the level of socio-economic development Among the most ten advanced developed districts of the southern region, seven districts come from the State of Kerala, two districts belong to Andhra Pradesh and one district comes from Tamil Nadu. Similarly among the ten most backward districts of the region, six districts come from Andhra Pradesh, two districts belong to Kamataka and remaining two districts are from Kerala. In case of agricultural development, the district of Shimoga from Kamataka ranked first and the district Nilgiris from Tamil Nadu ranked last. Four districts from Andhra Pradesh and six districts from Karnataka are found to be the best ten agriculturaIly advanced districts of the southern region. Wide disparities have been observed in the level of development among different districts of the region. The development of education from primary level onwards is found to be an urgent social need in some of the districts as their literacy level is below 45 per cent as compared to 52 per cent at AIl India level. Some of the districts require a unified balanced integration of curative, preventive and promotional health services.