Interstate disparities in education and health infrastructure: A multivariate analysis

Social sector infrastructure, especially in terms of health and education, is critical to the development process. Enhancement of capabilities largely comes from adequate health and educational attainment of people, which hinges on the infrastructural development in these sectors. World Development Report (WDR), 2013 observed that economies like India, with low human development base, require investing in key services like health and education, which can further help creating quality jobs apart from contributing to inclusive growth and improved standard of living. However, the presence of vast inter-state disparities in education and health infrastructure cannot be ruled out in the country. Using data from the secondary sources, this paper examines the level of interstate disparity among major states with respect to health and education indicators. PCA, Cluster Analysis, Dendrogram have been used to find out variations in the above-mentioned indicators. The paper finds wide interstate disparities in these indicators. The lagged regions therefore need to boost up expenditure on education and health sector. This assumes particular significance in the event of COVID-19 pandemic and in order to meet future challenges in these sectors.