The Economic Census of 2005 showed that while the number of enterprises other than those engaged in crop production and plantation, grew at an annualised rate of 3.4 per cent, less than the national growth rate of 4.41 per cent, growth in employment in such enterprises grew marginally at 1.39 per cent, compared to the 2.49 per cent growth in India. More interestingly, the trend in most parts of India showed higher growth in the rural areas, which is in contrast to the higher growth in urban enterprises and employment in Gujarat.

The urban-rural divide also shows up in the recently released National Family Health Survey data. While 91 per cent of the urban households had piped drinking water, just 60 per cent rural households enjoyed this privilege. Though it must be said that this is much better than the all-India average of 71 per cent and 27.9 per cent respectively.

Yet other health indicators also show a divide that should be bridged for the inclusive growth slogan to hold true. For instance, infant mortality has come down from 63 to 50 per 1000 live births during the period 1998-99 and 2005-06 but stands at 58 in rural areas and 36 in urban areas. To take another example, 55 per cent of children less than 2 years received all their vaccines in urban areas, but in rural areas this was 40 per cent. One disturbing number that emerges in the vaccination data is that while 53 per cent of the children less than 2 years were totally vaccinated in 1998-99, this number had dropped to 45 per cent in 2005-06, while the all-India data shows a rising trend from 42 to 44 per cent. There are, of course, many more instances where rural infrastructure and facilities could do with improvement.

... contd.