Social Sector Expenditure and Human Development: Evidence from Kerala

This paper analyzes the public spending on the social sector and the state of human development in Kerala State. With regard to social sector development, Kerala falls in the category of better-performing states within India. The state has systematically performed better and stayed above all the other Indian states on a number of social development indexes. Various reasons, such as social movements and welfare governments with a history of making socially disadvantaged people mainstream candidates, contribute to this high level of social formation. By analyzing the superior human development statistics achieved by Kerala, we further investigate its spending nature in the field of society including its implications on various indicators for human development itself. The study uses analytical tools such as rank correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis to attain the objectives. It is observed that human development is an incremental function of growth in social sector expenditure as social sector expenditure and human development are interrelated to each other. To drive effective and sustainable human development in Kerala, policymakers must strengthen evidence-based decision-making through rigorous analysis and the establishment of robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms around the critical indicators of social sector development.