Telangana leads in economic indicators, lags in social measures | Data Premium

Telangana's economic performance is better than many States, but this has not translated into better outcomes in social indicators. The State ranked 26/30 in wasted children, 23/30 in women married before 18, and 17/30 in Human Development Index. It generated the 5th-highest plastic waste & 7th-highest hazardous waste in 2018-19. Economic growth has come at a cost, as social development lags.

The Telangana Assembly elections are scheduled to take place on November 30. A comparison of the economic, social, and environmental indicators of the poll-bound State with the indicators of other States shows that Telangana’s economic performance is better than many States. However, this has not translated into better outcomes in measures related to women’s empowerment and child development.

In fact, across many social indicators, the State features at the bottom half of the rankings. Also, its performance worsened between 2015-16 and 2019-21. Temporal comparisons across many indicators were not possible as Telangana is a relatively new State.

Table 1 | The table shows Telangana’s rank in social indicators and its actual score in a parameter in 2019-21 and 2015-16. It also lists the change in Telangana’s rank in 2019-21 from 2015-16. The top three States in a parameter are also given for comparison. 

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For instance, Telangana had 21.7% of wasted children (low weight-for-age) in 2019-21 and ranked 26 out of 30 States. The three best States that year were Punjab (10.6% of stunted children), Haryana (11.5%) and Uttarakhand (13.2%). Telangana’s ranking fell by 10 spots in 2019-21 from 2015-16, the year when it was placed 16th out of 30 States.

On indicators of women empowerment, Telangana’s performance has been among the worst. For instance, as only 60.9% of the female population aged six years and above had ever attended school, Telangana ranked the lowest of all the 30 States analysed in 2019-21. Close to 23.5% of women aged 20-24 years were married before 18 years of age in 2019-21; Telangana ranked 23 out of 30. In both these indicators, the rankings slid compared to 2015-16.

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