The Kalaburagi District Human Development Report (KDHDR) 2014 presents a sad picture of continued backwardness of the region in key sectors of development despite a marked increase in the government allocation over the past few years.
The report, compiled by the Head of the Economics Department in Gulbarga University Chaya Degoankar and released here by the president of the Kalaburagi Zilla Panchayat Nitin Guttedar and CEO Anirudh Sravan, showed that the general living standard of the people in the district was poor.
The report pointed out that even today more than 43 per cent of people in the rural areas were living in ramshackle housing facilities. Rural sanitation continued to be one of the areas which continued to be neglected. According to the study, sanitation in rural areas of the district was less than 10 per cent.
ADVERTISEMENT
The report stated that Kalaburagi continued to be one of the districts in the State with a higher gender disparity in the literacy rate.
The female literacy rate of 55.87 per cent in the district was well below the State average of 68.13 per cent.
Among the taluks in the district, Jewargi stood last with a female literacy rate of just 45.8 per cent. The high drop-out rates and the early exit of girls from education and the deprivation of higher education to girls continued to be a serious concern in the district, according to Dr. Degoankar.
ADVERTISEMENT
The drop-out rate at the elementary level was 12 per cent in Sedam and it was high among the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes girls and Muslim girls.
High incidences of malnutrition and anaemia among women, gender differences in the work-force pattern, wage differentials, family structure and social institutions indicated the low status of women and their exploitation in the family and the society in the district.
In the overall Human Development Index, Chincholi taluk with 0.252 was last in the district. Kalaburagi taluk with 0.985 topped the district. The Gender Inequality Index (GII) was also lowest in Chincholi at 0.072 and maximum in Aland taluk at 0.159.
Chincholi taluk was last in the Child Development Index (CDI) due to high child mortality rates. The gap between Chincholi in the CDI of 0.386 and Sedam which at the top with 0.682 was huge.
In the Food Security Index also, Chincholi was last with 0.330 when compared to Kalaburagi’s 0.678. Although the literacy rate was improving in the district, the quality of education was still at the nadir with poor performances in the terminal examinations.
The sex ratio of 962 in the district was well below the State average of 968. The sex ratio in the 0-6 age group in the district was 935.
Among taluks in Aland it was 922, the lowest in the district. The Infant Mortality and Child Mortality was high in Chincholi due malnutrition, neglect of girl child and poverty.