Now Madhya Pradesh completed 51 years but lot of human and natural resources didn’t reach any development goals. Of course we are seeing some improvement after long time but these are not sufficient. Madhya Pradesh becomes a state November 1st in 1956. MP hasn’t faced any big trouble like Naxalism, Caste conflict, Terrorism etc., State have many resources like Mining, forest, Water but lack of political will, yet state is facing many challenges in social development like Education, Women and Child health, Poverty, Gender based discrimination etc. Nowadays state government is focusing economic development but without any social development, how can get benefit marginalized group. Specialist said that it is unbalanced development. If government will not give attention on improvement of health, education and other infrastructure than we can’t call Madhya Pradesh is developed state.

If we see situation of state in all development indicators, shows; in the state 44.77 lac families live below the poverty line and 15.81 lac families come in the circle of extreme poverty. Many Farmers are entrapped in indebt. According to the claims of the Government the number of children out of schools is less than one lac but the number of children working as laborers is more than ten lac. In this situation it is difficult to claim that the state is only slightly behind in its goal of hundred percent registrations in proportion to its target. The net enrollment rate of children of backward classes and of tribal communities, out of which the number of girls is higher, and of children living in slums in urban areas is less. In the absence of education female children have to face many problems in their lives. In M.P. the net enrollment rate of girls at the primary level is 0.88 percent, the percentage of dropouts at the primary, upper primary level is 20, out of which the percentage of girls is higher. In a state of more than 6 crore people Madhya Pradesh has a population of about 20 percent is, of tribal people and the extent of malnutrition in tribal children is alarming. Because of malnutrition resistance power becomes very low in children and they become victims of even ordinary diseases that can be cured and the possibility of death increases. The number of children below three years suffering from malnutrition has increased to 60.3 percent in 2006-07 as compared to 53.5percent in 1998-99 in the state. In the past decades there has been a reduction in the number of maternal deaths but in spite of this the number of maternal deaths is 7700 per year in the state. Nearly one maternal death every hour. The average number of maternal deaths in Madhya Pradesh ten years ago was 498 per lac, which has come down to just 379 per thousand at present. Fighting fatal diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and others has been declared as one of the millennium development goals. Till April 2007, 2201 HIV positive cases were found in M.P., out of which 86 percent cases were found to be between the ages of 11 to 45 years. On an average the number of HIV positive cases has been rising by 200 cases per year since 1998. If we look at the situation of malaria in the state, we can see that the contribution of Madhya Pradesh to the total number of cases in the country is 24 percent. 40 percent of the cases of Plasmodium Falciparum (one of the most dangerous kinds of malaria) are recorded in M.P. Out of the total number of deaths due to malaria 20 percent are recorded only in M.P. In the year 2006,when the blood of the 97 lacs 32 thousand 662 patients suffering from fever, was tested 96 thousand and 42 of the patients were found to be malaria positive, out of those 28 thousand 900 cases were of Falciparum malaria. In M.P. the level of T.B. is also dangerous. According to the Medium Term Health Sector Strategy -2006 in 2005, 85 persons per lac were found to be affected by T.B. 111 patients per lac have been identified by the statistics of the Health Department. Between January and March 2007 the status was that 104 per lac patients had been identified as being T.B. patients.

The multinational companies, which have been invited by the state government according to the policy of the state, have ruined the national resources. Those factories, which are located on the banks of rivers, are discharging their untreated effluents into the rivers, which in turn are destroying the fertility of the surrounding farms and also polluting the rivers and the ground water. The multinational companies are being given unlimited rights to draw out underground water and privatization of water is being done. There are often reports of violence because of fights over water. In many parts of the state the level of underground water has fallen very low. The level of nitrate in the underground water has risen because of the discharge of untreated effluents and chemicals by factories. The number of people suffering from fluorosis has increased. In the third part of the goals it is the aim at the national level to improve the standard of living of the total number of people living in slums by the year 2020. But by destroying the means of livelihood, displacing people living and depending on jungles, inviting multinational companies in agriculture and thereby rendering farm labour and farmers landless and as a result of that having increasing pressure on cities and urban areas and allowing illegal colonies from springing up – it is create question of development.

Now governments discuss all those issues and come out a perspective, so that marginalized can get benefit of development like others.

Raju Kumar