relatively high levels of disparities among the two predominant religious groups. Interestingly enough, those political radicals involved in the original social integration movements in Kerala were politically conservative. Nonetheless, the social discrimination due to caste of the early 20th century contributed to the cultural revolt and political mobilization of depressed castes. It was the success of these movements that allowed for the creation of Leftist movements that elevates the social status of lower classes as a whole. Gaps in the Kerala Model Kerala has had consistently high levels of development when compared to the rest of the country. The state has the highest record of per capita consumer expenditure, and this level has been progressively increasing since 1993. Kerala has now begun a high growth regime driven mainly by its service and construction industries. The all-India and statewise trend in the estimates of poverty headcount ratio (HCR) and Gini coefficient show that Kerala reduced its HCR by 10.3% between 1988-1993 and then again by another 12.2% in the 11 years proceeding until 2004–2005. Comparatively, Himachal Pradesh—which did not benefit from the same Gulf boom that Kerala did—reduced its post-reform rural poverty to a lower HCR of 10.9% in 2004–05. Moreover, though there was a marginal decline in the Gini coefficient for rural Kerala in 1993-1994 compared to previous years, there is a jump to 38.3% in 2004-2005—the highest figure compared to all-India figures and all other states. The urban Gini coefficient for Kerala in 2004-05 was 41%, second only to Chhattisgarh. Comparisons of scheduled tribes, castes, and religions also show growing income disparities, reflected by increasing incidence of suicides, family violence, gang activity, and alcoholism, among others. Even public provisioning of equitable access to healthcare and education, which are the foundation of the Kerala model, have decreased overall. The percentage of public spending on education to total government expenditure decreased from 29.28% in 1982–83 to 23.17% 1992-93 and 17.97% in 2005–06. In terms of education, the educational expenditure size of 6% which Kerala followed in the 1960s and 70s declined to just over 4% in the 1980s and below that in 11 of the 16 years during the post-reform regime. While decline of public expenditure on education decreased during the pre-reform period (from 1980 to 1991) at a rate of 0.97% yearly, the post-reform period has seen an even sharper decline of 2.13% a year. With regard to public expenditure