Table 1 Kottathara Human Development Report

The Kerala State Planning Board (KSPB) invited the Centre for Development Studies to prepare a local Human Development Report (at the Gram Panchayat level) as a follow-up of the Kerala Human Development Report 2005 [17]. The KoHDR seeks to consolidate the momentum gained in preparing the KHDR and strengthen the State planning process to focus on human development concerns. It presents an analysis of the achievements and the problems facing Kottathara Gram Panchayat in poverty reduction, health and education, and empowerment of the socially disadvantaged. This approach, to our knowledge the first of its kind to be undertaken in India, was made possible thanks to in-depth knowledge developed by the research team, including the numerous project profiles and databases, which were extensively used in preparing the Kottathara Human Development Report.