Ensuring inclusive growth in Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu’s State Development Policy Council (SDPC) has its task cut out. The announcement appointing eminent economist J Jeyaranjan as its vice-chairperson came on the heels of the news that India had slipped two ranks in the Sustainable Development Goals index. The country now stands at rank 117 among a total of 193 UN member states because it failed to make substantial progress in ending poverty and hunger. Tamil Nadu has been a frontrunner in industrial, social and sustainable development. Yet, there are several gaps that must be filled, and the SDPC could be the solution that the state needs.
For instance, the Twelfth Plan identified 10 themes for TN, of which an important one was inclusive growth. Yet, the social and political consciousness of the theme has not influenced the scientific and infrastructural development of the state in a broader sense. Infrastructural inequality continues to plague cities, towns and villages alike. Suburbs around Chennai—especially to the North and West, where blue-collar workers live—continue to struggle without piped sewage lines. When water scarcity hits Chennai, it’s the low-income settlements that are most affected. In the northern districts, just hours away from the capital, Dalits continue to struggle for proper burial spaces or access to these areas through streets populated by dominant castes. Despite years of deliberation over social justice, the state has not been able to bridge this basic inequity efficiently. In short, our planners have failed to build cities and towns that foster collaboration.
The Council will have to consider this challenge while working on inclusive growth. Building schools and colleges that replace discrimination with collaboration, healthcare facilities that provide equitable services immaterial of caste and class, and cities sans caste colonies or communal ghettoes will require a technology-oriented approach. It would require a reimagining of engineering and science policies from a sociological perspective. If the Council is able to even lay the foundations for this in the next five years, the vision of inclusive growth can be realised in the distant future.