Dravidam 2.0 To reflect as a time, to act

With the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in Tamil Nadu celebrating its icons (Periyar EV Ramasamy, CN Annadurai and M. Karunanidhi) with renewed vigor, there is a need to rethink the Dravidian policies that have transformed the state. Today, Tamil Nadu is the most modern state which boasts of a dynamic productive economy with impressive welfare provisions for its citizens. Its structural change has been substantial: less than 30% of its workforce is involved in agriculture, it is highly urbanised, and has a large industrial workforce. While this change has certainly created new opportunities and has brought some degree of inclusion especially for the lower castes, Dalits and women, it has created a slew of new challenges. These are the problems of the “second generation”, as it were, and are quite unique to the state.

The first generation of Dravidian policies, particularly its innovative approach to affirmative action, addressed quantitative concerns such as access to education and health for all, and the shift from caste labor to wage labor. The second generation needs a qualitative change in the attitude towards education, health, caste and gender issues and decentralized governance.

poor education, employment

Broad-based industrial change broke the occupational base of caste by converting caste labor to wage labour, but it did not create enough decent jobs, with casual jobs outside agriculture being the predominant option. As per the latest Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS)-2018-19, 62% of the workers are in the informal sector and 82% of the workforce is not covered by any social security. Even among people with regular jobs and stable incomes, 75.2% do not have a written contract. This informality and resultant pay disparity is arguably a product of the poor quality of education that the state has built up over the past three decades.

Even as Tamil Nadu was a pioneer in universal schooling that challenged elitism, India’s education system was known without its problems. In a recent report released by the Union Ministry of Education, Tamil Nadu scored lowest among southern states in the Performance Grading Index (PGI) of learning outcomes for 2019-20. One in four in eighth grade was not able to read a class two level text. Not more than 50% of the students can do simple division. Since learning outcomes determine who attends which college, this in turn reflects labor market outcomes. Tamil Nadu’s achievement in higher education with a Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) of 51.4% as compared to the all-India average of 27.1% has not helped it achieve quality in the job market.

In fact, the increased enrollment is itself a result of the rapid growth of private colleges. Tamil Nadu accounted for one-fifth of all educational loans taken in the country from public sector banks in 2013-14 as well as 2015-16. But many private engineering colleges do not meet the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) prescription in terms of infrastructure, qualified teaching staff and curriculum. It hurts the students of these colleges when they compete for employment, giving poor return on their investment in education.

Tamil Nadu’s challenge is to focus on improving learning outcomes and addressing inequalities in the quality of education. The students who are the first in their family to get higher education are disheartened, and they are largely from the lower strata of the Dalit and Other Backward Classes.

poor health care

Tamil Nadu is known for its public health interventions and socially inclusive healthcare workers. But what is not talked about much is that the state is a leader in private medical services, which has provided the blueprint for the corporatization of medical services across India. A significant population in the state is dependent on expensive private health care. According to the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO)-75th Round (2017-18), the average medical cost of hospitalization in private hospitals was ₹35,581, higher than Gujarat, Maharashtra and the all-India average of ₹31,845.

Some of these fault lines became apparent in the state’s health response to COVID-19. Despite having a well-functioning public health system, the state’s ability to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, reduce mortality and vaccinate the public has been inadequate. Its case-death ratio was higher than that of neighboring Andhra Pradesh and twice that of Kerala. This failure has been attributed to the state’s neglect of decentralization, while Kerala and Maharashtra have fared better with their more decentralized efforts. Tamil Nadu has not seen its urban local body elections since 2016.

While the Tamil Nadu government’s recent policy of recruiting archakas (priests) from all castes is a laudable move, caste disparities remain in the economy. Caste inequalities are exported to urban areas while in rural areas it has reduced. Urban Tamil Nadu, which used to be seen as a place less marked by caste, now reproduces caste inequalities in new ways. In addition to inequality in higher education, the elite, through their caste network, have invented a new mechanism – ‘opportunity hoarding’ – that perpetuates caste inequality. While several states, including Tamil Nadu’s neighboring Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, have introduced quotas for Dalits in public procurement for goods and services, Tamil Nadu has yet to enact an act to demonstrate its credibility in addressing the Dalit question. Is. Meanwhile, violence against Dalits is increasing. The relative socio-economic and political upliftment of Dalits is correlated with the increase in violence against them. Often, this violence is physical in nature and targets the property of Dalits, a symbol of their material progress.

Moreover, the state has a peculiar record when it comes to women empowerment. This has certainly increased the overall female participation – the percentage of women in the workforce (between 15-59 age group) is 42% against 34% in Gujarat, 41.3% in Maharashtra and 31% nationally. In Tamil Nadu, the participation of women in the non-farm sector is 61%, while in Gujarat it is 34% and in Maharashtra 35%. However, this quantitative increase in the participation of women in the modern economy has been accompanied by widespread violence against them in social life. Not only is violence against women much higher than in most states, but violence by both men and women is justified. As per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-2015-16, domestic violence against women is 45%, which is equal to 45% of Bihar (33% at all India level). About 70% of women accept it and about 63% of men justify it. The state, which boasts of a Dravidian legacy of women’s empowerment, sent just 12 MLAs (or 5%) to its 234-member assembly in the recent election.

Beyond ‘crony populism’

The state also doesn’t do well in terms of “fiscal justice,” to use Thomas Piketty’s phrase. Not only is its tax-GDP ratio one of the lowest in the country at -8.7%, TASMAC, or Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Limited (a public sector network of liquor stores) continues to be a significant source of income. The state must certainly create new forms of fiscal progress to move from this regressive taxation to what the asset class pays for. The state’s political system has a reputation for corruption and rent-seeking, which Michael Walton and James Crabtree portray as an exemplary case of ‘crony populism’. Dravidian parties have created a centralized mechanism for withdrawal of fares similar to pork-barrel politics that feeds into electoral funding. The election expenditure per candidate in the state is the highest in the country.

Leave aside the frenzied praise of Tamil Nadu’s success face to face From a quantitative point of view in the Bharatiya Janata Party ruled states, the state needs a fresh approach to address the qualitative aspects of social policy and governance. Just as the Dravidian symbols recognized, understood and resolved the challenges of their times, the new government in Tamil Nadu, while it offers hope, must be mindful of the new challenges here and now.

Kalaiyarasan A. Watson is a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University and the South Asia Institute, Research Affiliate at Harvard University. Views expressed are personal