Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a message to the nation on Thursday evening that due to Article 370 of the Constitution giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir has been denied development. Earlier on Monday, Home Minister Amit Shah made the same argument while announcing the abolition of the special status in Rajya Sabha.

He said that the government's decision to abolish Article 370 will help in restoring the state of development, health and education in the state.

But is Jammu and Kashmir really backward in comparison to other states of India in terms of health services, development and education?

We examined some indicators to compare other states in India.

According to the National Family Health Survey (2015-16), Kerala is the best state among all these indicators.

Here 95.4% of women aged 6 years and above have received school education.

In comparison, Bihar has only 56 percent women in this category who have ever gone to school.

Where is Jammu and Kashmir in this case?

The status of this category of women in Jammu and Kashmir is much better than Bihar (56.9%), Uttar Pradesh (63%) and Andhra Pradesh (62%). Here 65.6 percent of the women of this class have taken school education.

Similarly, the sex ratio in Jammu and Kashmir is also better than in many Indian states. Jammu and Kashmir has 972 females per 1,000 males. Whereas in states like Delhi (854), Uttar Pradesh (912), Bihar (918), Gujarat (919) and Maharashtra (952), the sex ratio is much lower than Jammu and Kashmir.

Jammu and Kashmir is ahead of other indicators such as Bihar, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra in terms of availability of electricity in homes.

At the same time, Jammu and Kashmir uses far better cleaning facilities than Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

Jammu and Kashmir is one of the few states where infant mortality is much lower than the national average. The survey also states that the death rate in the state is lower than Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

When it comes to vaccination, 75% of children in the age group of 12-23 months are fully vaccinated here. While in Gujarat this rate is 50%.

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