Kerala is a state in Southern India with 29 million people crowded into an area the size of Switzerland. The per capita income for the people of Kerala is between $298 and $350 per year. However, Kerala's birth rate is 18 per thousand, compared with 16 per thousand in the U.S. The male life expectency is 70, as opposed to the North American male expectancy of 72. To top it off, Keralites have been certified by the United Nations to be 100 percent literate. As Bill McKibben puts it, "Demographically... Kerala mirrors the United States on about one-seventieth the cash."

Kerala owes its success to a series of locally-initiated reforms. As early as the beginning of the 19th century, the British government was returning land control to local overlords. This shift meant that the regions's leadership was locally based and thus more potentially responsive to local concerns. Modern Kerala really began, however, with the actions of caste reformers such as Sri Narayana Guru. In 1888, he began to openly challenge the system of caste hierarchy that both the secular and religious elites. According to Mckibben, "Kerala is now less caste-ridden than any spot in the Hindu world; it is a transition more complete than, say, the transformation achieved by the civil rights movement in the American South."

The caste-reform movement and the accompanying left-wing government pushed for increased education starting in the 1920s and continuing through the present. Supported largely by a massive volunteer force, government projects focussing on practical education and basic literacy were set up throughout the state. Education levels increased at approximately equal rates among urban and rural populations, and among men and women.

Kerala's growth rate has fallen to replacement level largely because families' expectations have changed. More educated women are more independent, and more likely to participate in family planning decisions. Furthermore, the peoples' commitment to equality has led to a decrease in gender discrimination; female children are considered just as valuable as males. Furthermore, Kerala's extensive and effective health care system gives parents greater confidence that their offspring will survive.

Kerala is not problem-free; high unemployment and government debt are major concerns. However, the state's successes are important to study, because they challenge assumptions regarding reform: pessimistic belief that disadvantaged populations can't initiate reform movements, that class hierarchies can't be challenged, and that poverty precludes an improved standard of living. Indeed, Keralites enjoy many of the advantages of living in an industrialized area, without the environmental damage that accompany the industrialized lifestyle.

Contributed by Gabe Cumming, gcummin1@swarthmore.edu, December 1997