Ncaer Study Puts 39% Rural Population Below Poverty Line

A study by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), called the Human Development Profile for rural households in the country, reports that 39 per cent of the rural population is below the poverty line while the mean household income in rural India works out to less than Rs 1,900 per month, corresponding to a per capita income of Rs 4,485.

Data on levels of income shows that the high income states have high income disparities, with the exception of Haryana and Kerala. The low income states cover more than 50 per cent of Indias population.

The figures also reveal that about 58 per cent of Indias rural population has access to only about Rs 6 per day to meet all their minimum requirements of health, nutrition, education and other essentials.

 

The richest income group in rural India, which has an income of above Rs 86,000 per annum, constitutes only about 4 per cent of the population and its income level is about seven times higher in terms of per capita income.

The report was commissioned by the Planning Commission and financed by UNDP, Unicef, IDRC and a few other such organisations. It is the largest ever exercise to be undertaken in the country and is yet to be published. NCAER has produced the report based on data collected from a rural sample of 33,230 households drawn from 16 states in a survey conducted between January and May 1994.

The report discusses Indias human development profile mainly in terms of education, health and material well-being at a state level for different social groups. NCAER has also taken 28 village studies to understand the ground realities of human life and provide validity to the survey research findings. NCAER is also preparing the urban component of the Human Development Profile study and has done a sample of 2,500 households selected from 16 urban centres.

One of the main findings of the report at the macro-level is that while inter-state disparities persist, inter-population group disparities appear to be narrowing in certain parameters. However, the report states that the disparities in levels of income remain.

As regards the source of income, about 55 per cent of income in rural India still comes from agriculture and allied activities followed by a 16.5 per cent contribution of salaries and professional incomes.

Assets in rural households are still dominated by land which accounts for 63 per cent while 30 per cent of rural households are wage-earners.

The report also throws light on the public distribution system (PDS) showing that only 33 of all rural households reported using the PDS on a regular basis.

However, the public distribution system seems to be working fairly efficiently in all four southern states, two western states and Himachal Pradesh.

However, the system is reported weakest in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal.

What is heartening in an otherwise dismal scenario is that the literacy level has increased substantially over the years accompanied by reduction in gender gaps. Although literacy rates are directly proportional to levels of income, the gender gap remains more or less stable.

The report states that the total household expenditure on elementary schooling has been Rs 368 per student per year.

This is a decline in literacy expenditure as the 1992 figures showed an annual expense of Rs 464 per student.

NCAER has suggested that to impart elementary education to all children in India at the prevailing level of quality would involve an expenditure of Rs 23,634 crore which is around 3.3 per cent of the gross domestic product. The current expenditure is only 1.7 per cent of GDP.