Computer facility in schools: Students learning basic computer operations inside a specially designed bus at Panchayat Union Middle School in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu on 23 September 2022. Photo Credit: Karthikeyan
Compared to most states, Tamil Nadu is an excellent performer in several socio-economic indicators. It is among the three best states in terms of share of women who ever attended school, low infant mortality rate and low share of stunted children. It ranks first in the country in terms of Gross Enrollment Ratio in higher education.
These numbers are part of a long-standing argument that southern states generally do better than other states, especially those in the north. While there is merit to the argument, an analysis of district-level data shows that development is confined to certain parts of Tamil Nadu. The gap between advanced districts such as Chennai, Kanniyakumari and Coimbatore and relatively poorer districts such as Ramanathapuram, Pudukkottai, Ariyalur and Perambalur is large in many of the socio-economic indicators considered for this analysis.
This is the first story in a series of data points exploring inter-district disparities in southern states. In this edition, district-wise variations in Tamil Nadu are analyzed across eight indicators.
Chart 1 | The chart shows the share of households using clean fuel (electricity, LPG/natural gas, biogas) for cooking in 2019-21.
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About 98% of households in Chennai use the clean fuel, compared to 42% in Pudukkottai. The western districts – Coimbatore, Erode, Tirupur (95% utilization each) – fared better than many southern/east coastal districts such as Tiruvarur, Pudukkottai and Nagapattinam (60% utilization each).
Chart 2 | The chart shows the share of households that used improved sanitation facilities in 2019-21.
Kanniyakumari’s share was 96.2% compared to Viluppuram’s 53.8%. Most of the central districts including Ariyalur, Perambalur, Karur, Salem, Tiruchirappalli and south western districts like Virudhunagar and Dindigul lagged behind with less than 70% such households.
Chart 3 | The chart shows the share of children under 5 who were stunted (low height for age) in 2019-21.
In Karur, 33.6% of children were stunted compared to 18% in Tiruvallur. While northern coastal districts such as Chennai, Kanchipuram and Cuddalore fared relatively better (with about 20% or less stunted children), northern interior districts such as Vellore, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri fared worse (over 28%).
Chart 4 | The chart shows the share of women aged 20-24 who married as teenagers.
In the central districts of Salem and Perambalur, more than 21% were married as teenagers – much higher than the 1.9% in Chennai.
Chart 5 | The chart shows the share of schools that had computers on their premises (2021-22).
In many southern districts such as Thoothukudi, Tenkasi and Tirunelveli the share was less than 65%, while in Chennai and Viluppuram it was around 90%.
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Chart 6 | The chart shows the number of people employed in micro, small and medium enterprises (2020-21) for every one lakh people in the population.
Most of such companies were concentrated in Chennai, Tiruppur and Coimbatore.
Chart 7 | The chart shows the latest estimates of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (0: least poor, 1: poorest).
The MPI measures deprivations in health, education and standard of living. Chennai and Kanniyakumari remained close to zero while Pudukkottai was the worst performing district.
Chart 8 | The chart shows Net District Domestic Product (in lakh) at current prices in 2019-20.
The northern coastal districts were ahead by a wide margin while most of the southern/east coastal regions were far behind.
vignesh.r@thehindu.co.in
Source: Data collected from National Family Health Survey (NFHS), Integrated District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), Tamil Nadu Government Statistics and Tamil Nadu Human Development Report
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