Kerala and Uttar Pradesh

These notes are a summary of pp. 44-45 of the World Development report 2004 (pp. 13-14 of the linked PDF file).

Differences

Women born in Kerala will on average live 20 years longer than a woman born in Uttar Pradesh.
One in three girls in Uttar Pradesh does has not attended school. There is universal attendance in Kerala.
70% of primary school teachers in Kerala are female compared to only 25% in Uttar Pradesh.

Socially Kerala does not have the caste system Uttar Pradesh, a typical Indian state does.
Matrilineal inheritance, where inheritance passes through the female side of the family helped equality in the region. Whereas Uttar Pradesh has strong inequalities between men and women.
Equality leads to education for all, not just males.
A literate and informed population took an interst in affairs and citizens pushed for better health care and other services from the state such as child immunisation, food distriution and social security. In Uttar Pradesh owing to a lower literacy rate citizens are not so politically active. In Uttar Pradesh traditional caste system views are much more active in the minds of the government.

Previously one region of Kerala, from the three states, which were combined to form Kerala was not as developed as the rest of the state. This has since changed and now development across Kerala is near uniform.
Historically Kerala was given a head start. Education has given the citizens the ability to read and write and take an active role in politics and so develop as a state. This is not true in Uttar Pradesh where traditional values have caused the state to become trapped in a 'vicious circle' where an illiterate population take no part in political affairs, so there is no reward to the government for the provision of such services.

These notes form a homework given in a lesson on 06/09/2004.