Telangana, the newly formed 29th State of the country, stands just short of hitting the rock bottom of the literacy and employment pyramid, Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC)-2011 of the country revealed.
As per the detailed report released on July 3, Telangana stood fourth in the country’s rural illiteracy chart, as 40.42 per cent of its rural population stood illiterate.
The State’s illiteracy rate is notches higher than the national average of 35.73 per cent. The only States that stood ahead of Telangana in illiteracy were Rajasthan with 47.58 per cent, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar with 43.85 per cent.
Adding to poor literacy rate is the State’s abysmal performance in the salaried (organised) sector. Telangana stood the sixth lowest in the salaried job category as just 7.64 per cent of its rural population had jobs in the organised sector. The national average in this sector was 9.68 per cent.
As per the census, the State’s rural population remains highly dependent on manual casual labour as 49.58 per cent of the population is dependent on it.
“Telangana has been witnessing rapid ‘casualisation’ of labour where people get thrown out of their land and end up doing odd jobs that offer no security,” said C Ramachandraiah, social scientist, Centre for Economics and Social Sciences (CESS), Hyderabad, adding government’s literacy programmes failed to reach rural households.
Dalits and Adivasis
face acute deprivation
Land ownership is still a distant dream for many Dalits and Adivasis in Telangana as 34.38 per cent of these households do not own land.
Out of the 65.62 per cent of Dalits who own land, 29.85 per cent have unirrigated land. Among Adivasi households, 47.13 per cent own unirrigated land.
