By C.M. Paul
Siliguri, November 10, 2026: On a rainy morning in Kerala, a schoolgirl waiting for a bus absentmindedly drops a chocolate wrapper onto the roadside.
Before it can be washed into a drain, an elderly passer-by quietly picks it up and places it in a nearby waste bin. Nobody applauds. Nobody posts a video online. It is simply what citizens are expected to do.
More than 2,500 kilometres away, in a bustling town of northern India, a government employee slips a small payment to a middleman to expedite a routine administrative process. Again, nobody is surprised. “This is how things work,” people shrug.
These everyday scenes, repeated in countless forms across India, may help explain the findings of a remarkable national study that attempts to measure something often overlooked in discussions of development: behaviour.
The Gross Domestic Behaviour (GDB) Survey, a pioneering nationwide study conducted by the India Today Group in partnership with How India Lives and Kadence International, examined dimensions of social life that economic indicators fail to capture.
Based on face-to-face interviews with 9,188 respondents across 21 states and one Union Territory covering 98 districts, the survey explored civic behaviour, public safety, gender attitudes, and diversity and discrimination.
Released in March 2025, it offers a rare glimpse into the social and moral infrastructure underpinning India’s development journey.
Its findings reveal a striking pattern. Kerala topped the national behavioural rankings, followed by Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Odisha.
At the other end of the spectrum stood Uttar Pradesh, with several northern states trailing on key indicators of social attitudes and civic conduct.
The survey does more than rank states. It raises a deeper question: Why do some regions display stronger civic responsibility, greater openness to diversity, and more progressive attitudes toward women than others?
The answer may lie less in culture than in classrooms.
For decades, public discussions about regional inequality have focused primarily on economics. Yet the GDB findings suggest the existence of another divide, one shaped by educational opportunities, social reform movements and investments in human development.
States that spent generations expanding literacy, broadening access to education, empowering women and challenging entrenched social hierarchies appear to have developed stronger civic cultures as a result.
In this respect, the survey is less a report card on behaviour than a report card on the long-term impact of education.
Kerala and Tamil Nadu exemplify this trajectory. Long before human development became a fashionable policy term, both states invested heavily in public education, healthcare and social reform.
Kerala’s pallikoodam literacy campaigns by St Chavara Kuriakose Elias, missionary schools, and reform movements led by figures such as Sree Narayana Guru and Ayyankali transformed society by challenging caste barriers and expanding educational access.
Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian movement similarly promoted education, rationalism and social justice as pathways to social mobility.
Survey Findings
The results are visible not only in literacy statistics but also in social attitudes.
One of the survey’s most revealing findings concerns gender relations. While India celebrates women scientists, judges, entrepreneurs and political leaders, nearly 69 percent of respondents still supported men being the primary decision-makers within households.
This statistic reveals the resilience of patriarchy despite visible advances in women’s empowerment. Yet the burden of patriarchy is not distributed evenly. States with higher female literacy and stronger educational systems generally display more progressive attitudes towards gender equality.
Education, especially female education, changes more than employment prospects. It changes expectations. It enables women to participate in household decisions, pursue economic independence and challenge discriminatory norms. It also shapes the values transmitted to the next generation.
The survey’s findings on civic behaviour are equally revealing. More than half the respondents considered cash transactions to avoid taxes acceptable, while 61 percent justified paying bribes to get things done.
These figures expose an uncomfortable truth. Economic development alone does not guarantee civic responsibility. A society may build expressways, airports and industrial corridors while still struggling with corruption, indifference and weak public ethics.
Where education matters most.
Schools do not simply teach mathematics and science. They teach habits of citizenship. They inculcate values of fairness, accountability, coexistence and respect for public institutions.
Where educational systems function well, citizens are more likely to understand that obeying rules, paying taxes and rejecting corruption are responsibilities that sustain the common good.
The survey also offers reasons for optimism. Around 70 percent of respondents reported no objection to having neighbours from another religion.
In an era of amplified communal tensions and polarising rhetoric, this finding suggests that ordinary Indians may be more tolerant than public discourse often assumes.
Once again, education appears to be an important factor. Higher literacy and exposure to diverse communities tend to foster acceptance of pluralism and reduce prejudice based on religion or caste.
Caution
To be sure, regional comparisons must be approached with caution. Neither the South nor the Hindi-speaking heartland is monolithic. Kerala continues to grapple with unemployment and substance abuse. Tamil Nadu faces periodic caste tensions despite its reformist legacy.
Likewise, northern India is home to dynamic universities, innovative educational initiatives and inspiring examples of social transformation.
Yet the broader pattern identified by the survey remains difficult to ignore.
The states that have consistently invested in education and human development generally perform better on indicators of civic responsibility, social inclusion and gender equality. States where educational progress has been slower and more uneven tend to lag behind.
Lesson for policymakers
India’s aspiration to become a developed nation cannot be realised through GDP growth alone.
A developed society requires citizens who reject corruption, respect diversity, uphold gender equality and contribute to the common good. Such values cannot be manufactured through economic policy.
Those values must be caught and cultivated through education and reinforced through social institutions.
The significance of the Gross Domestic Behaviour Survey lies in its reminder that development is not merely about what a nation produces, earns or consumes.
It is also about how citizens relate to one another and to the society they inhabit.
GDP measures the wealth of a nation. Gross Domestic Behaviour attempts to measure the quality of its civic life.
If the survey points to a North-South divide, the most effective bridge across that divide is neither political rhetoric nor cultural pride.
It is quality education, inclusive education and transformative education. The states that have performed well in the survey are neither genetically different nor morally superior.
They are places where generations of investment in schools, literacy, public health, women’s empowerment and social reform have gradually shaped public behaviour.
India’s future, therefore, may depend less on the next expressway, airport or industrial corridor than on what happens inside its classrooms.
For the real story behind the survey is not about Kerala, Tamil Nadu or Uttar Pradesh. It is about the kind of citizen India chooses to nurture.
The elderly man who stooped to pick up a discarded wrapper at a Kerala bus stop was performing a simple act of civic responsibility. No law compelled him. No camera rewarded him. Somewhere along the way, through family, school and society, he had learned that public spaces belong to everyone.
The challenge before India is to ensure that such habits become commonplace everywhere, from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, from Kochi to Kanpur.
When that happens, the nation’s true progress will no longer be measured merely by the growth of its Gross Domestic Product.
It will be visible in cleaner streets, fairer institutions, safer public spaces, greater respect for women and a deeper acceptance of diversity. In short, India will have begun to grow its Gross Domestic Behaviour as surely as it has grown its economy.