Kupwara leads aspirational district rankings in north region

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 13

Once known for heavy militant infestation, Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir this week emerged a leader in north India in the first independent appraisal of the national aspirational district programme by the UNDP.

Among the 112 aspirational districts ranked by the UNDP on five key criteria of healthcare and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, basic infrastructure, skill development and financial inclusion, Kupwara is the top ranked at number 30 among eight other aspirational districts in north India.

Kupwara is also the only north Indian aspirational district to make it to the top 30.

The lowest ranked aspirational district among northern states is Himachal Pradesh’s Chamba at the 85th position.

Punjab’s Ferozepur is ranked at number 73.

Uttrakhand’s Hardwar and Udham Singh Nagar are placed at numbers 31 and 48 in the rankings followed by JK’s Baramulla ranked 54, Punjab’s Moga 59th and Haryana Mewat 66th.

The UNDP in a recent assessment of the Aspirational Districts Programme launched in 2018 across 28 states concluded that the programme had helped achieve the objectives of accelerated growth in 112 most backward districts of the country through convergence of government programmes.

The assessors used two indices – resilience and vulnerability – to determine which of the districts performed better than the others.

The review found Ranchi, Chandauli, Simdega, Sonbhadra and Rajgarh to be India’s best performing aspirational districts and Sitamarhi, Gumla, Dantewada, Bijapur and Nawada to be the least performing.

A comparison between the Aspirational Districts and their counterparts (non-ADs) found that ADs outperformed non-ADs with 9.6 pc more home deliveries attended by a skilled birth attendant there; 5.8 pc more pregnant women with severe anaemia treated ; 4.8 pc more children diagnosed with diarrhoea treated; 4.5 pc more pregnant registered for antenatal care within their first trimester.

UNDP also recommended ‘Malaria Mukt Bastar Abhiyaan’ in Bijapur and Dantewada as a best practice saying it reduced malaria incidences in these districts by 71 pc and 54 pc, respectively.

The report recommended replication of the programme in other countries facing development challenges and said India’s ADP significantly improved previously neglected districts, including those affected by Left Wing Extremism and these areas “have experienced more growth and development in the last three years than ever before”.