Social indicators point to growing prosperity in state

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 5

The face of rural areas in tiny hill state of Himachal is gradually changing with socio-economic indicators showing that state is inching towards prosperity with 42.11 per cent of rural households possessing a refrigerator, 80 per cent having a mobile or landline phone and 19.93 per cent owning motorize two, three or four wheelers.

In spite of rapid urbanization with number of towns increasing to 56, Himachal remains a predominantly rural state with rural households accounting for (12,61,682) 88.53 per cent out of the total 14,25,185 and the urban household stands at 1,63,503 (11.47) per cent. There are only 936 houseless in the rural areas while the number is 402 in urban areas.

Economic Adviser to the state government Pradeep Chauhan attributed the improved indicator to high Gross State Domestic Product and per capita income which crossed Rs 1 lakh mark. He said that these bring general prosperity and increase purchases power of the people.

The fact that about 20 per cent households own vehicles is an indication that road connectivity has penetrated into the rural area.

As per the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011, the total rural population in the state was 59,34,315 which included 30,02,917 males and 29,31,337 females, indicating that the female population was 49.39 per cent.

The practice of carrying night soil on the head has almost been eliminated in rural areas and the number of manual scavengers was only four.

Further, 33.93 per cent of rural households are having salaried jobs with 23.08 per cent in government and 9.43 in private sector. In sharp contrast to the adjoining state of Punjab, 78 per cent of the rural households own land and only 22 per cent are without land.

Prof of Sociology at Himachal Pradesh University Mohan Jharta says that land reforms giving ownership rights to tenants and section 118 of Tenancy and Land Reform Act which bars sale of land to non agriculturists has protected agriculture land. The focus should now shift from physical infrastructure to quality improvement in health services and education in rural areas, he added.

The income levels have marginally improved. The income of 67.45 per cent households was less than Rs 5,000 per month. As many as 11.52 per cent are having income between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 while 18.03 per cent are earning more than Rs 10,000 per month. However, only 1,39,371 rural households are paying income or professional tax. The average size of rural household is 4.6.

Cultivation still remains the main source of income with 36.19 per cent households directly involved in agriculture and 20.19 per cent working as casual manual labourers. As many as 2.59 per cent agriculturists have their own enterprise.

The irrigation facilities still remain inadequate with 64 per cent of over 1.1 crore acre land without irrigation facility. Only 25 per cent have assured irrigation and 11 per cent partially irrigation facility. Agriculture still holds the future hopes as farm production would get boost with the expansion of irrigation and farmers adopting modern farm practices and retaining the landholdings, say experts.