The state also has a higher per capita debt-ratio, more than even UP and Bihar. Also, contrary to public perception, Gujarat’s gender indices are almost frightening. The sex ratio in the state is 921:1000 with the juvenile sex ratio even further down to 878:1000. The state is placed at the sixth position among the 15 largest states of India in terms of human development and gender development.
Even industrial growth in Gujarat is being propelled by highly toxic, polluting and hazardous industries – textile, dyeing, ship breaking, diamond polishing among others. Health issues apart, labour laws are still a joke in Gujarat — and it is no wonder that the state is ranked eighth in India in terms of minimum wages.
Overall it is a bitter picture of increasing GDP with declining expenditure on the social sector in Gujarat as in the past decade
Half Life
Women in Gujarat tend to be safer in public places than in the privacy of their homes. Gujarat takes special pride in protecting its women, even eve teasing is rare. But, in the privacy of their homes, women still battle for their right to exist, as the state’s skewed sex ratio demonstrates, with female foeticide rampant – more so among the urban middle and dominant, prosperous classes.
Gujarat government has launched a Beti Bachao Abhiyaan (save the girl child), with incentives for the education and well-being of girls. But the state government has yet to crack down on doctors and laboratories that continue with sex determination tests, with no major arrests being made as such. Doctors’ associations have, at best, pay lip service to the cause, mostly perfunctory resolutions.
The Patan gangrape – wherein a Dalit girl student was gangraped by her six teachers in a government-run Primary Teachers’ Training college, was another one such wart. The girl had to later seek protection from her own father, with her custody being granted to an NGO, even as the fast track court trial is still on. The state government ordered an inquiry following mounting public pressure, even as the chief minister gave Rs 1 lakh to the victim — for having dared to file a complaint.
Godhra Ghost
If many of the riot-affected people hailed the 11 convictions in the Bilkis Banu case as a triumph of justice, the announcement of the first part of the Nanavati Commission Report in the Godhra train burning incident raised more questions than answers.
The year also witnessed the appointment of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) by the Supreme Court, headed by former CBI chief R K Raghavan for fresh investigations in the ten most heinous cases of Godhra and post-Godhra killings. With the police and the judicial system in the state under fire over the handling of the 2002 riot cases, it was left to the Supreme Court-appointed special courts and special teams to ensure a fair investigation six years after the incidents. The SIT did finally question state minister Maya Kodnani and VHP leader Jaydeep Patel: both accused of playing a key role in the Naroda Patiya massacres .
The state government-appointed Nanavati Commission tabled only the first part of the report that claimed to deal only with the Sabarmati Express carnage and gave a clean chit to Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the riots that followed the incident, and which the Commission has yet to report on. The Nanavati report underlined the conspiracy theory behind the train carnage, contradicting the Railway ministry-appointed UC Banerjee Commission’s findings.
Writer’s Block
The literary scene during 2008 remained a mixed bag with private efforts trying to keep it afloat. But the official indifference made sure the language academies remained comatose with no government representatives appointed. A procession of books, which was taken out in Gandhinagar as part of a three-day event by the Gandhinagar Cultural Forum, was perhaps the only visible sign of some activity in the literary field. For a city of overburdened bureaucrats and politicians, this was a modest attempt to change its image of being a place where nothing moves but files. Chief Minister Narendra Modi also tried to contribute to the attempt in his own way by coming out with his books—one of his own poems and the other, of his short stories. These, ostensibly, were written much before he had succeeded Keshubhai Patel.
The year marked two Sahitya Academy awards coming Gujarat’s way. One was announced for Gujarati short story writer Suman Shah and the other to Urdu poet Jayant Parmar. So far, only three Hindu poets have bagged the poetry award in the Academy’s history. Earlier, the award had gone to Firaq Gorakhpuri (1960), Anand Narayan Mulla (1964) and Balraj Komal (1985). Parmar is also the first Dalit poet to bag this award. The only “live” language academy in Gujarat is the Kachchhi Academy and the state government need not be blamed for this. It was formed only a couple of years ago and its five-year term has not ended. Maybe this New Year, the government may consider appointing its nominees in other academies and pull them from the tenterhooks.
Riot Acts
The 2002 riots are invariably cited as 'cause' for almost every terror strike in the country; and whenever that happens, Gujarat simmers with communal tension. There were no big conflagrations in 2008, but the undercurrents of distrust and hate remained. This was true in the case of real estate agents of Surat, who resolved not to sell or rent property to Muslims, post 26/11.
The Gujarat coastline was used for the most daring intrusions by terrorists during the Mumbai terror attack. But Gujaratis responded with extraordinary calm after the July 26 Ahmedabad blasts that killed 56 people, including children and doctors in hospitals, and left hundreds injured. For once, there was not much finger pointing, and the state largely put up a united front partaking each other’s grief.
The Ahmedabad blasts were followed by a blast in Modasa during the month of Ramzan. A youth was killed outside a mosque. Gujaratis once again stood together, even as competitive politicking and counter terrorism rhetoric took over. While scars run deep; lives remain torn apart and support is still away: the state government is yet to compensate the Modasa blast victim’s kin, while the injured in the Ahmedabad blasts are still awaiting succour from the Centre.
A Tiny Big Hope
So far, TaTa Motors’ Nano project, hyped as the Rs 2,000-crore force multiplier for the investment-hungry state, may have appeared to fructify a slew of realty investments in Ahmedabad and the outskirts of Sanand. Others are still in the pipeline. But Gujarat did attract the largest quantum of investments in 2007-08, according to a study by the Reserve Bank of India.
With a proposed investment of Rs 62,442 crore in 100 projects, Gujarat continued to occupy the top spot as far as investment intention was concerned. The state has been consistently exhibiting higher growth rates than the national growth average and steadily clocked an average growth rate of more than 10 per cent in the last five years. On every front, be it infrastructure, foreign investment or the investments by the existing companies, the state has attracted investments.
Special Economic Zones (SEZ) is another area where Gujarat has excelled. Big players like Suzlon Infrastructure Ltd announced their engineering products SEZ at Vaghodia in Vadodara.
Petrochemical is another area where Gujarat is making its presence felt. Jamnagar refinery, with an aggregate crude oil processing capacity of 1.24 million barrels per day, including old and new refineries, became the sixth largest refinery in the world. The secondary processing units are now under synchronisation and commissioning. The entire refinery complex is expected to attain full capacity.
Health Concerns
According to the Reserve Bank of India, Gujarat fares poorly in the social sector. In fact, it is placed 17th among the18 big states in India. The reason: only 31.6 per cent of the state’s budgetary expenditure is in the social sector. The result: 74.3 per cent of women and 46.3 per cent of children in the state are anaemic. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS 2005-06) had showed that in Gujarat, 47 per cent of children below 5 years are underweight as a result of malnutrition.
Even among adults, nearly one-third of the population has a Body Mass Index of below normal. Moving to Maternal and Child Health, only half the mothers in the state receive postnatal institutional care. This reflects on the overall state Infant Mortality Rate (deaths of children within a year of birth) — 54 per 1,000 babies, which goes up to 64 per 1,000 babies in the rural areas. Gujarat stands ninth in respect of overall IMR in the country. Even in terms of Neo-Natal Mortality, which is the death of infants within the first month of birth, the state stands eighth in the country.
Thoda Wish Karo...
* A Gujarat that can deal firmly with the grim spectre of 2002, and appear to be justly doing so.
* A Gujarat that can take care of the continuing hunger of about half its marginalised population even as it seeks to forge ahead on its double digit growth rate.
* A Gujarat where people can find homes and jobs irrespective of their religion, caste, class, food habits; and where there is enough mental, social and physical space for all.
* A Gujarat, where errant medics and hospitals will be actually prosecuted for abetting or committing female foeticide.
* A Gujarat, where manual scavenging and chakar pratha (a form of bonded labour) will cease to exist.
* A Gujarati literary milieu that will tolerate the satire of Saadat Hasan Manto on its social divisions and warts, the vigour of Vijay Tendulkar’s drama, and the poetry of Gadar for its forgotten Dalits and tribals.
* A Gujarat, which can protect its forests and wildlife, and which can let the Asiatic lion roam free beyond Gir.
* A Gujarat where the east and the west come together; and the term 'Eastern Tribal Belt' signifying deprivation ceases to exist.
* A Gujarat where the civil society stands up for what it believes in; and fights for what it stood for.
* A Gujarat where every child gets value-based education, is well-nourished, and is willing to dream and dream 'BIG'.