Telangana will soon unveil its Social Development Report 2017 on the lines of India Social Development Report.
In contrast to the annual socio economic outlook where the State government spells out its plans and ambitious programmes mainly in the macro economic sectors, Social Development Report takes an analytical view about the quality of life of people. It outlines key areas that call for urgent attention to improve living conditions, especially of the poor and vulnerable sections in the State. The report, first of its kind for any State, will be released by Finance Minister Eatala Rajender on May 12.
Given the context of separate statehood and the hopes and aspirations of people for a better life in their own State, a need was felt for a baseline data on core sectors that impact people’s lives. The Council for Social Development was given the task by the Planning Department to prepare the report. Kalpana Kannabiran, Regional Director of Council for Social Development that prepared the report, says it basically presents a statistical profile of the social sector in the State. “We sourced and analysed the data from various rounds of National Sample Survey Office, supplemented by Census data for the 10 districts prior to district reorganisation in 2016,” she said.
This is more of a pilot study in seven parameters: Land and agriculture, credit and indebtedness, employment/unemployment, education, public distribution system, health and household amenities that determine the quality of life in addition to the demographic profile of the State and the present status of development in Telangana, Ms. Kannabiran said. “Our job is to give analytical information to the government culled from time-tested, authentic and validated databases of the country. We extracted unit level (household) data in the above seven sectors and built the baseline data for the government to get a realistic picture vis a vis the national level indicators. It will make it easy for the government to act and formulate suitable policies and interventions”. Some key findings: Faster decline in fertility as State population grew only by 13.6 per cent, population explosion in urban areas in the last decade, elderly population in State increased more than national average in 2011, decline in child sex ratio (0-6 years) from 957 to 933, rural landless households constitute 43.3 per cent of total rural households and lower access to institutional credit to SCs and STs.
