Tamil Nadu is a standout performer along many socio-economic indicators compared to most States. It features among the three best States in terms of the share of women who ever attended school, a low infant mortality rate and a low share of stunted children. It leads the country in terms of gross enrolment ratio in higher education.
These numbers are part of the long-standing argument that the southern States generally perform better than other States, especially those in the north. While the argument holds merit, an analysis of district-level data shows that development is restricted to certain pockets of Tamil Nadu. The differences between advanced districts such as Chennai, Kanniyakumari and Coimbatore and relatively poor districts such as Ramanathapuram, Pudukkottai, Ariyalur, and Perambalur are vast in many of the socioeconomic indicators considered for this analysis.
Tamil Nadu district map
This is the first story in a series of Data Points exploring inter-district disparities in southern States. In this edition, Tamil Nadu’s district-wise variations are analysed across eight indicators.
Chart 1 | The chart shows the share of households that used clean fuel (electricity, LPG/natural gas, biogas) for cooking in 2019-21.
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Close to 98% of households in Chennai used clean fuel compared to Pudukkottai’s 42%. The western districts — Coimbatore, Erode, Tirupur (>95% usage each) — were better off compared to many southern/eastern coastal districts such as Tiruvarur, Pudukkottai, and Nagapattinam (<60% usage each).
Chart 2 | The chart shows the share of households that used an improved sanitation facility in 2019-21.
Kanniyakumari’s share was 96.2% compared to Viluppuram’s 53.8%. Most of the central districts including Ariyalur, Perambalur, Karur, Salem, Tiruchirappalli and south western districts such as Virudhunagar and Dindigul lagged behind with less than 70% of such households.
Chart 3 | The chart shows the share of children under 5 years who were stunted (low height for age) in 2019-21.
In Karur, 33.6% of children were stunted compared to 18% in Tiruvallur. While northern coastal districts such as Chennai, Kancheepuram and Cuddalore were relatively better (with around 20% or less of stunted children), northern interior districts such as Vellore, Dharmapuri, and Krishnagiri were worse (more than 28%).
Chart 4 | The chart shows the share of women aged 20-24 years who married as teenagers.
In the central districts of Salem and Perambalur, more than 21% were married as teenagers — much higher than the 1.9% in Chennai.
Chart 5 | The chart shows the share of schools which had a computer on their premises (2021-22).
In many southern districts such as Thoothukudi, Tenkasi and Tirunelveli, the share was less than 65%, whereas it was nearly 90% in Chennai and Viluppuram.
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Chart 6 | The chart shows the number of people employed in micro, small and medium enterprises (2020-21) for every one lakh people in the population.
Most such companies were concentrated in Chennai, Tiruppur, and Coimbatore.
Chart 7 | The chart shows the latest estimates of the multidimensional poverty index (0: least poor, 1: most poor).
The MPI measures deprivations across health, education and standard of living. Chennai and Kanniyakumari featured near 0 while Pudukkottai was the worst-performing district.
Chart 8 | The chart shows the net district domestic product at current prices in 2019-20 (in lakh).
The northern coastal districts led by a wide margin while most southern/eastern coastal regions lagged far behind.
vignesh.r@thehindu.co.in
Source: Data collated from National Family Health Survey (NFHS), Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), Tamil Nadu Government Statistics and Tamil Nadu Human Development Report
Also read | Tamil Nadu: A blend of development and welfarism
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