Ease of living: Education, medical care give Chennai bragging rights

CHENNAI: Education and medical care took Chennai up the Ease of Living 2018 rankings released by the ministry of housing and urban affairs on Monday.
Chennai bettered other metros in education and was after Mumbai in the health sector. Of the 25 points in the social sector, it got 17.78, scored 4.6 out of 6.25 in education and 4.43 out of 6.25 in health.

Six educational indicators were considered as the basis for the ranking: Percentage of school-aged population enrolled in schools, percentage of female school-aged population in schools, primary education student-teacher ratio, percentage of schools with access to digital education, percentage of students completing primary education and those completing secondary education.
State president of the Tamil Nadu Private Schools Association M J Martin Kennedy said RTE admissions had a significant role to play in enrolment numbers. Chennai had the second highest number of RTE applications in the state with 7,541 applications received. The state saw a record number of applications of over 1.26 lakh applications this year. “Infrastructure, teaching standards and methodology at schools have improved,” he said.
Campaigns were undertaken to promote enrolment across districts. Last academic year, corporation schools promoted enrolment by conducting rallies to raise awareness of free facilities. Sarva Siksha Abhiyan data shows that 77,209 students enrolled in 2015-16 while 76,869 enrolled in 2016-17.
In the health sector, four parameters were factored in: Number of doctors and hospital beds, and incidences of vector-borne and water-borne infections. While the World Health Organisation stipulates 10 doctors for every 10,000 people, Chennai has 18 for the same. Tamil Nadu has 22 state-run medical colleges – most in the country – and an equal number in the private sector. The state produces more than 5,000 doctors every year.
The city has more hospital beds than the national average -- 2.5 beds per 1,000 population against the country-wide average of about one per 1,000. “The existing hospitals continue to expand by adding more beds or opening new branches,” said N J Gowrishankar, a hospital consultant.
The government is planning to add beds for mental health, trauma and emergency care. “We are expanding across the state to fill in gaps. We are partnering with NGOs and tapping CSR funds from corporates for expansion and health infrastructure,” said state health minister C Vijaya Baskar. “We are the only state where 65% of deliveries are done at government hospitals. We offer free treatment at all government hospitals and nearly 1.5 crore families are covered by state health insurance. We keep the out-of-pocket expenditure very low,” he said.