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The Indian state of Kerala with a population of 29 million has made the transition to a society with low infant mortality rate, low population growth, and a low crude death rate in less than 30 years. The average life expectancy for women is 74 years (vs. 60 years for India as a whole) and 71 years for men (vs. 59 years for India), the infant mortality rate is 16.5/1000 live births (vs. 91/1000 for India), and literacy is almost universal. The population growth rate fell from 44/1000 in the 1950s to 18/1000 in 1991. By 1985 the population growth rate had stabilized to a demographic replacement level net reproduction rate. Kerala's female/male ratio is 1.04:1 as opposed to the Indian average of 0.93:1 and China's 0.94:1. All this was achieved without coercion by democratically elected state governments. In the late 1970s Kerala ranked number one in 15 out of 21 Indian states with respect to selected infrastructural and basic services. This development came about despite a low per capita income. In 1991-92 the state of Punjab, with more than twice the per capita income of Kerala, had 33 PQLI (Physical Quality of Life Index) points less than Kerala. In addition, the HDI (Human Development Index) of Kerala was more than twice the national average. The HDI was 0.925 for the US in 1994 vs. 0.775 for Kerala, where the per capita income was one-hundredth of the US per capita income. This progress was accomplished by the elimination of absentee landlords and the return of the land to the tiller; and large amounts of funds spent on education, health care, infrastructure, agricultural credits, and housing. Staples were made available to the poor at subsidized prices. The Kerala model may be taken as an early prototype of sustainable development because of improvements in the quality of life, environmental stability, social and economic equality, and the decline in political strife.
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