Madhya Pradesh in the bottom half of all State-level rankings | Data Premium

Madhya Pradesh polls: Comparison of social, economic & environmental indicators shows State at bottom half; no notable improvement in last few years; HDI rank 26 of 30 in 1990, 27 in 2021; only 7% workforce employed in manufacturing sector; better in environmental indicators.

The Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections are scheduled to take place on November 17. A comparison of the economic, social, and environmental indicators of the poll-bound State with the indicators of other States shows that Madhya Pradesh features at the bottom half. Also, its relative ranking among the States remained stagnant in most of the indicators between 2015-16 and 2019-21.

Table 1 | The table lists Madhya Pradesh’s rank in social indicators and its actual score in an indicator in 2019-21, 2015-16, and 2005-06. It also shows the change in rank in 2019-21 from 2015-16. The performance of the top three States in the indicator is also given for comparison.

Chart appears incomplete? Click to remove AMP mode

 For instance, Madhya Pradesh had 35.7% stunted children (low height-for-age) in 2019-21, and ranked 25 out of 30 States. The three best-performing States that year were Kerala (23.4%), Punjab (24.5%), and Tamil Nadu (25%). In this indicator, Madhya Pradesh’s ranking improved by just one spot in 2019-21 from 2015-16, the year when the State was placed 26th out of the 30 States.

Across most social indicators, there has been no notable improvement in the last few years. For instance, the share of girls/women who attended school was 64% in 2015-16 and improved to only 67.5% in 2019-21. Only those aged six and above were considered. The share of underweight children (low weight-for-age) improved marginally from 42.8% to 33%, while the infant mortality rate recorded a small improvement from 51.2 to 41.3. The State’s ranking in the parameter of underweight children improved only by two spots (from 28 to 26), and in the parameter of infant mortality rate only by one spot (28 to 27), among the 30 States considered.

Click to subscribe to our Data newsletter

In fact, a comparison with data from 2005-06 shows that the rankings have hardly improved since. In that period, Madhya Pradesh ranked at the bottom of the table in many social indicators. It no longer holds that dubious distinction. For instance, in 2005-06, the State ranked at the bottom of the list in the share of wasted children (weight-for-height) and underweight children. In 2005-06, only 28 States were considered for comparison; the data of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were ignored.