Income inequalities and Poverty
The percentage of self-employed and unpaid family workers is increasing among rural females from 2004-05 to 2011-12; the proportion of regular/salaried is decreasing. In the case of urban females there is signifi cant increase in regular types of employment and reduction in casual jobs. Casualization is observed among STs in Telangana. And more than half of the ST workers are in selfemployed category. The SC category is mostly employed in casual type of employment compared to any other social group. But the advantage of attaining regular/salaried employment from 2004-05 to 2011-12 goes to the SC community even though others category is still leading in the regular type of employment.
Rural farm activities have increased in Telangana but the proportion of urban non-farm activities is higher compared to all India. It essentially means that the entire rural Telangana is still farm based and the urban Telangana is more involved in non-farm activities. Employment in manufacture is stagnating and the employment generated is mainly in construction and services. Even though trade, hotels and restaurants, and public administration sub-divisions have a higher share within the services sector, work is swiftly changing towards fi nancial intermediaries, business and real estate activities from 2004-05 to 2011-12.
Although the rate of unemployment is higher in urban areas, the increase is seen more in rural (mostly males) from 2004-05 to 2011-12. On the one hand, there is a reduction of females both in the labour force and in the work force, but on the other, the unemployment rate is lower compared to men.
The proportion of youth (15 to 29 years age group as per NYP, 2014) in Telangana is around 30 per cent, which is higher compared to the national average. The alarming situation is that about one-fi fth of the youth in the state was neither in the labour force nor in educational institutions during 2011-12; the percentage was only 14.5 during 2004-05. It is unfortunate to note that as high as 96 per cent of the youth in Telangana do not have technical education at all. Of the total working youth, 44 per cent are in the agriculture sector. Other major employment providers to the youth are manufacturing (15 per cent) and trade, hotels and restaurants (11 per cent).
Nearly about four-fi fths of the households in the state have access to the PDS; level of access is highest in Medak district at 94.5 per cent, lowest in Hyderabad with just about half of the households having ration cards. Nearly 92 per cent of the STs in the state have ration cards; among SC households about 80 per cent have ration cards.
Households in the bottom 30 per cent of MPCE with a maximum monthly per capita consumption expenditure of Rs 1332 account for 52 per cent among STs, 42 per cent among SCs, 30 per cent among OBCs and 14 per cent among ‘Others’. Only 6.8 per cent of ST households and 18.5 per cent of SC households are in the top 30 per cent of MPCE and able to report a monthly per capita expenditure above Rs 2996. Analysis of data reveals that 8.9 per cent of households in the bottom three deciles do not have access to PDS. In other words, the ration cards meant for the poorest of the poor households are held by the ‘richest’ households; 36 per cent of ST households that report not having a ration card are in the bottom- decile group while the corresponding percentage for SCs is 14 per cent. The dependence on PDS for rice among the topmost decile group is as high as 19.49 per cent while in urban Telangana it is negligible. That is, the infi ltration of the better-off sections into the PDS is more of a problem in rural Telangana.
It is reported that Telangana has higher morbidity in rural areas (9.8 per cent), than the urban areas (9.5 per cent) as against the national pattern of 8.9 per cent and 11.8 per cent for rural and urban areas respectively. Logistic regression analysis shows that among gender groups, females were more morbid and they were 17 per cent more likely to report morbidity than males. Age group analysis shows that the ‘old’ age group showed itself more likely to be morbid, followed by the age group ‘0–4’. It shows that the old age group, 60 and above, was 80 per cent more likely to have morbidity than the 0–4 age group, which is the next most probable morbid group. Household size analysis shows that small families with three or fewer members were 52 per cent more likely to have morbidity than the families with eight or more members. High-MPCE groups were 17 per cent less likely to be morbid than medium MPCE.
In Telangana, the percentage of women married before the age of 18 years (who belonged to the age group of 20–24 during the time of survey) is much higher in rural areas (about 35 per cent). In urban areas, the corresponding percentage is 15.7. This indicates the prevalence of early marriage system in Telangana, especially in rural Telangana. The IMR is also not showing a good sign of health for society. Rural IMR is 35 and urban IMR is 20. The situation of under-fi ve mortality rate is also a concern in Telangana with 38 in rural and 25 in urban (NFHS-4, 2015-16). The use of family planning methods is about 59 and 56 per cent in urban and rural areas respectively among the women of age group 15-49. The role of health workers in spreading this is also to be improved a lot.
Although institutional births in Telangana are higher (96 per cent in urban and 87 per cent in rural), the institutional births in public facilities is too low at about only 27 and 34 per cent for urban and rural areas. According to the NSSO (2014) 71st Round survey, the percentage distribution of women (aged 15–49) who gave birth in private hospitals is higher in Telangana both in rural (59.3 per cent) and urban area (74.3 per cent) when compared to all India (22.5 per cent and 45.8 per cent respectively). The rate of utilisation of public hospital for this purpose is very low in Telangana (29.4 per cent in rural and 22.5 per cent in urban) when compared to all India (41.4 per cent and 38.4 per cent respectively). It is to be noted that the rate of deliveries at home is very low in Telangana (2.2 per cent in rural and 1.6 per cent in urban) when compared to all India (19.9 per cent and 10.5 per cent respectively). This necessitates state policy orientation towards ensuring mother and child care through public institutions.
Housing plays an important role in the welfare of a household. Apart from providing shelter against various physical threats, both man-made and natural, the availability of adequate housing facilities with proper supply of potable water, sufficient sanitation facilities and clean surroundings is necessary to ensure decent public health. As assessment of types of housing structure in the state shows that Telangana as a state has fared better than India and is comparable to southern states. Still, in rural areas almost 21 per cent households are residing in semi-pucca houses.
At 79.6 per cent, SCs households had the lowest level of pucca households. The data on presence of a bathroom in the household showed that in the state 28 per cent of the households lacked bathroom facilities in their house; the proportion was still lower in rural areas and among SC and STs, indicating that their houses are small and lack basic facilities. At district level, Karimnagar had the lowest proportion of houses with a bathroom inside the premises, followed by Mahabubnagar and Khammam. With respect to drainage, rural areas lag behind in access; district-wise, Mahabubnagar is especially poor with only 33 per cent households having drainage facilities. Mahabubnagar again stands apart with respect to facilities for garbage disposal – almost 83 per cent households here have no arrangement for garbage disposal. For the state, as a whole, for 29 per cent of households there is no arrangement for garbage disposal, while 37 per cent of households make their own arrangement for disposal.