An Examination of Socio-economic Well- being in Aspirational and Non-aspirational Districts of Assam: A Comparative Analysis of Their Performance
| Published date | 01 December 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00195561241248289 |
| Author | Nilanjana Chakrabarty,Juthika Konwar |
| Date | 01 December 2024 |
An Examination of
Socio-economic Well-
being in Aspirational
and Non-aspirational
Districts of Assam:
A Comparative Analysis
of Their Performance
Nilanjana Chakrabarty1 and Juthika Konwar1
Abstract
The Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) led by the Government of India
(GoI) aims to achieve developmental goals in line with the UN Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). The ADP has endeavoured to shift the focus
back to development. Post-Independence, India has recorded an upward trend
in overall growth and development, but it still has a huge scope for improve-
ment.This initiative of the GoI has generated evidence-based data for guiding
policymakers regarding the existing gaps in various developmental parameters.
The core approach of ADP has resulted in a data-driven governance system.
The performance measurement of districts is vital for tracking and monitor-
ing the progress as well as to compare with the benchmark District. However,
measuring the performance of aspirational districts has always been a challenging
task for administrators as development is multidimensional in scope and cover-
age. In this context, this article attempts to compare the performance of the
seven aspirational districts with seven non-aspirational districts of Assam. The
comparison is done on the basis of economic indicators and human well-being.
The aspirational and non-aspirational districts are significantly different in terms
of education, health–nutrition and basic infrastructure. The findings of this study
advance the way for measuring the progress of a district/state/country in terms
of overall development, going beyond the measures of GDP only.
Article
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
70(4) 756–773, 2024
© 2024 IIPA
Article reuse guidelines:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/00195561241248289
journals.sagepub.com/home/ipa
1 Department of Business Administration, Assam University, Silchar, Assam, India
Corresponding author:
Nilanjana Chakrabarty, Department of Business Administration, Assam University, Silchar, Assam
788011, India.
E-mail: nilanjanachakrabarty.aus@gmail.com
Chakrabarty and Konwar 757
Keywords
Health and nutrition, composite index, Aspirational District Programme
Introduction
Development of human resources and the economic progress are the interlinked
concepts which catalyse the overall development of a district and the nation as a
whole. With the passage of time, progress in economic terms, mostly GDP, has
become the major determinant for weighing the attainment of success of a country,
and while doing so, development lags behind in the race. To bring back the parity
and refocus on the core area of development, the Government of India (GoI) has
initiated the ‘the Aspirational District Programme (ADP)’. Post-Independence
India has recorded an upward trend in overall growth and development, but it still
has a larger scope for improvement.
The State of Assam, situated in the northeastern corner of India, has thirty-four
Districts and State Headquarters at Dispur, Guwahati. The State shares borders
with seven states, including Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram,
Nagaland, Tripura and West Bengal. Assam is the largest economy in the north-
eastern region. The State is relatively close to the rest of the country compared
with other northeastern states, which oers a congenial atmosphere for the indus-
try. The State area is 78,438 sq km, which is home to 3.6 crore people (Census
Report 2011). The majority of the State’s population, around 86%, resides in rural
areas and the rate of urbanisation is slow. The State’s performance in the basic
development spectrum is low compared with the all-India average.
Keeping pace with the Planning Commission’s Sustainable Development
Goals, Assam is striving hard to realise them in the domain of critical sectors for
human development and basic indicators of sustainable life. The agship pro-
gramme of aspirational districts provides the right impetus towards inclusive devel-
opment and hence improved indicators. Assam has seven aspirational districts,
namely Barpeta, Darrang, Dhubri, Goalpara, Hailakandi, Baksa and Udalguri.
Literature Review
The literature related to economic growth and human well-being highlights the
two-way relationship in the context of income and other nancial parameters of
growth. But as far as the policy implication and relative evaluation of government
schemes and programmes are concerned, they are still unexplored. The transfor-
mation of ADP has been running for over two years across 112 districts of the
country (Transformation of Aspirational Districts, 2018). During this timeframe,
the programme has created an impact at the grassroots level on the basis of socio-
economic parameters.
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