Human Development among SCs and STs

Human Development Profile of Scheduled Castes and Tribes in Rural India: A Bench Mark Survey by Chakrabarty, G and P.K. Ghosh; National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi, 2000; pp.167, Rs. 300.

S. Venkatesan, OneWorld South Asia

New Delhi (March 7 2006): Historically, development has been mainly perceived in terms of economic growth or income. But it conceals genuine development of people which is considered to be a real wealth of a nation such as health and education. A fundamental shift occurred in 1990, with the introduction of the concept of human development, refers on the people’s achievement in different spheres of their life, be it the acquiring of knowledge or living a long and healthy life and the enjoyment of decent living standard (UNDP, 1990). The multidimensional human achievements have been measured by composite index popularly known as Human Development Index (HDI). It has been conceptualized very often at national level in its beginning years and used as tools to assess national development and compare for cross-national levels. However, in recent years, the UNDP has succeeded in influencing a large number of national and sub-national governments to make their own human development reports. Such exercises have been carried out in through its first National Human Development Report 2001. The Madhya Pradesh Human Development Report 1995 is the first of its kind among Indian states, and there are seven states have already produced their state report latest by West Bengal and others are in the process.

National report and the other states reports have estimated the composite index of HDI and analysed it at state or district level reveals many aspects of human condition and can be useful for ranking state or districts and assessing cross-sectional comparisons of their development achievements and failures. The major limitation of state reports is that the district level analysis does not directly reveal development achievements by the people and its variation among different social groups, such as between Scheduled Castes/Tribes and Other Castes and between different religious groups such as Hindus, Muslims, Christians etc. are examples of more meaningful groupings and it is a valuable input for policy makers and governments to target and allocate resources (Chakarborty 2003).

The report under review has succeeded in this direction to provide some evidences of the extent and nature of social group differentials in human development. The differentials have been obtained from the data collected in the large household survey carried out by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in its HDI survey during 1993-1994 in major states. In all, 35130 households were selected in the sample of which 33230 were surveyed. Among these 7943 were SC households and 4220 were ST households. The report divided into six chapters, addresses at wide range of issues relating to human development and variation between SCs/STs and others in selected states.

Chapter one, introduction, deals with the issues related to conceptual framework for the study. It adopts the UNDP’s development approach on the reasoning that the real wealth of a nation is its people and therefore, the focus of development shifted from commodity to people centered and viewed as a process that encourages the expansion of people’s capabilities. Despite the ongoing debate on exclusion and inclusion of different variables in the composite index of human development, there is little disagreement with the proposition advanced in the human development reports of the UNDP that people in general aspire to increase their income and assets, which will help them improve their standard of living, to acquire knowledge and to lead a long and healthily life. Indeed, without denying the fact that people aspire for many other things in life such as pollution free environment or personal freedom, there seems t be a broad consensus that the three concerns identified by the UNDP are the essential constituents of development. The NCAER study also adopts his approach and examines the results among SCs and STs in rural both in absolute terms and relative to that of the other communities.

Chapter two deals with demographic and social profile of the scheduled caste and tribes. While the SCs are scattered in almost all the states in varying proportion, a majority of the STs is concentrated in the so-called central tribal belt of Maharastra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, M.P. Bihar, W B, Orissa and A P. Another striking features of SCs/STs is that overwhelming majorities (SCs 81.3% & STs 92.6%) still live in rural areas. Both these group have a faster rate of population growth than other sections of population. This is reflected in their rising proportions in the total population. In 1961, the SCs constituted 14.7% of the country's population with the increasing figure of 16.5% in 1991. Likewise, during the same period, the STs have risen from 6.9% to 8.1%.

Chapter three is on education, which examines the progress and disparity in literacy level among SCs/STS and other communities. There has been considerable progress in literacy level. Such progress notwithstanding, literacy in certain regions has failed to rise fast enough. For example, Bihar (4.3%), Rajasthan (3.7%), U P (6.6%) with an appallingly low level of SC female literacy. Likewise the low level of ST female literacy in states of A P (5.8%), M P (7.6) Orissa (7.6%) and Rajasthan (2.9%). While the performance of some states like H P has been commendable, that of Bihar, M P, U P. and Rajasthan leves much to be desired. The level of literacy in these states was more or less same as that in H.P. in 1961. By 1991, however, literacy in H.P. has increased to 53.5% from 17.2% in 1961. During the same period, Bihar could attain a level of only 30.6% compared with 18.4% in 1961. The corresponding figure for M.P., Orissa, Rajasthan and U.P. respectively is 17.1% to 35.5%, 21.7% to 40.8%, 15.2% to 39% and 17.7% to 33.2%. Even among the SCs and STs in H.P, literacy has gone up substantially - from 8.5% and 8.6% in 1961 to 43.8% and 38.7% respectively in 1991.

Disparities in the literacy rate between SCs/STs and other communities are still quite high, although these are showing a decreasing trend in recent years. In a bid to measures the disparity, a simple index has been used. This index measures the performance of SCs/STs group relative to other group. If literacy in group SCs/STs is low relative to that in other group, the index will have a low value, less than 100. As literacy in former group rises relative to latter group, the value of the index rises, reaching the value 100 when literacy among the two grups is equal. The result show, for instance, at national level the index was 42.9 in 1961 and its reaches up to only 70 during 1991. The value of index significantly varies across states. The disparity have been reduced considerabley for states of Kerala from 53 in 1961 to 85 in 1991, Orrissa from 54 to 74, and M.P from 46 to 78. Bihar, Rajasthan and U.P are the states performing badly in reducing disparity. States where the disparity is redued only marginally are T.N., West Bangal and Pubjab. Kerala, Gujarat, Maharastra and Himachal Pradesh are only states where the gap in literacy between SCs and general popuatioon are significalnly low.

Another valid indicator of human development is immunization of children and expectant mothers and life expectancy. In chapter four, the issues of health care facilities and health status addressed. Health status has been measured by indictors like morbidity, mortality, immunization of children and expectant mothers and nutrition. The information on health care facilities available to different social groups shows that the facilities available in SC village, ST village and All villages. But it does not give the information on whether these facilities are located in their settlements. Because, the SCs and STs in most of the states (expect Kerala for the case of SCs) are typically living in separate settlements. Unless and until we collect the detailed information (e.g. All-India Educational Survey gives information on availability of educational facilities in the rural habitations by predominantly SC population, ST population and other population. Given the little information the SCs and STs are at a disadvantageous position in terms of health care facilities, except aganwadies. The quality of drinking water available in villages dominated by SCs and STs is also generally worse. Various indicators they have taken for the health status are morbidity and mortality. There are two types of morbidity: short duration and major morbidity. Ailments such as diarrhea, cough and cold and unspecified fever during a 30 days reference period preceding the day of interview are considered to be short duration morbidity. A person under medication on the day of interview and suffering from chronic or major illnesses such as epilepsy, T B, diabetes, leprosy or even mental disorder, hyper tension and heart problems is considered to be major morbidity. The prevalence rates of both the aspects vary by social and states.

The other indicator of health status is mortality, as measured by the crude death rate, is marginally higher among the SCs and STs. (Show states table and explain). The other issue related to health status of population is that access/utilisation of health care services. Various indicators used for this purpose are immunization of children and expectant mothers and attention received at the time of delivery. The estimates for the first indicator clearly shows that much lower level of both mothers and children, among STs in most states, except Maharastra and Gujarat. The SCs, however, do not lag too far behind the others on this account. The estimated result of access/utilisation of health care services shows that, in rural most children are born at home: 79% among SCs, 89% among STs and 76% among the population as a whole. The figure is much lower in A.P. (45.9%) and W.B. (38.5%). Among the Scs, more than 90% of children in M.P. and U.P. are born at home while only 52.5% are born at home in Gujarat and 31.1% in Tamil Nadu. The estimates for ST is abysmally low in states like Bihar (6%).

Anthropometric measurements of high and weight have been recorded for all children aged 0-12 years in the sample households of the HDI survey. The growth status of these children has been assessed in terms of height for age, reflecting degree of stunting and weight for height, indicating degree of wasting in the age group 0-4 and 5-12 completed years. Cut-off levels stipulated by the National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) have been used for classifying the children according to their nutritional status. The proportion of children falling below the reference median by three stand read devotions and those falling between two and three standard devitiation are presented separately in appendix tablesA4.18 to A4.20 for SCs, STs and all children across states.

The third dimension of human development, income and access to economic recourse such as land has been dealt in the fifth chapter. The results shows that estimate to income inequality, incidence and intensity of poverty and other related measures have been presented to draw a comparative picture.

Chapter five deals with material well being. It analysis household income, inequality in income, and intensity of poverty and other parameters to draw a comparative picture. Show tables and explain. In respect to income parameter, the result shows that in most of the states, the SCs and STs have a lower per capita income relative to the others. Also, the distribution of income in terms of mean or Gini Coefficient reveals that lower income among SCs/STs is more egalitarian as compare to others there rich as well as poor persons leading to greater inequality of income.

Last chapter is on concluding remarks addresses results presented in pervious chapters education, health and material well being. It concluded that the effort have been made last more than 50 years to improve the socio-economic conditions of SCs and STs had its impact in the desired direction. The magnitude of the impact however, falls far short of the requirement. A comprehensive scrutiny of the policies followed so far, both formulation and implementation, is perhaps needed locate the factors inhibiting a faster progress. Many of such factors are likely to be region and community specific. The study suggests the localized surveys should be undertaken to collect information on and interplay of these factors inhibiting faster progress. The report is an important contribution to the study of caste inequality in human development in , of great use to policy markers, scholars and to NGOs alike.

Correspondence to:

S. Venkatesan
Knowledge for Development
Initiative on Equity and Social Justice
OneWorld South Asia
C-5, Qutab Institutional Area
New Delhi – 110 016. .
Tel: 91 11 51689000 Fax: 91 11 51689001
E-Mail: s.venkatesan@oneworld.net