ABSTRACT
While doing my field work in the villages of Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, the difference in the quality and extent of public services, along with the conditions of women’s lives, is something that came across as being strikingly different between the two states. Although this was expected to some extent, the way in which the difference in the role of public services in people’s lives between the two states stood out during the interviews was surprising. This is also indicated by the number of persons employed in the public sector in each of these states. While there are 1,996 public sector employees per 100,000 population in Tamil Nadu, in Uttar Pradesh there are only 817 public sector employees per 100,000 population.1 Some of the data in Chapter 4 have already shown how the coverage and quality of public services in Tamil Nadu are amongst the best in the country, whereas Uttar Pradesh ranks amongst the worst performing states. However, looking at some of the public services in details throws up some interesting insights.
