Indian Streams Research Journal ISSN:-2230-7850 AN ANALYSIS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS OF SCHEDULED CASTES: A STUDY OF BORDER AREAS OF JAMMU DISTRICT ORIGINAL ARTICLE Pradeep Arora and Virendar Koundal Research Scholar, Department of Economics, University of Jammu. Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Jammu. Abstract:-The aim of the paper is to highlight the socio-economic status of the scheduled castes residing in border areas of the Jammu district. Among the various socially deprived classes, scheduled castes suffer from the dual disabilities of severe economic exploitation and social discrimination while they constitute near about 16 per cent of the total population in the country and about 7.37 per cent in the state of J&K. The present paper is based on primary as well as secondary data. Primary data is collected by using interview schedule. Secondary data is collected from the census of India, Annual Reports and Administrative guidelines of the Ministry, Government of India as well as from the classified data available with internet. Apart from these, books, journals, seminar papers, etc, formed the sources for the collection of secondary data for the present paper. It has been found that economic condition of the scheduled castes living in border areas is not satisfactory. Majority of SCs are living in inhuman conditions. They lack basic facilities. They suffer due to unavailability of safe drinking water, due to unavailability of proper sanitation facilities, lack of adequate health facilities and educational facilities and above all due to inadequate employment opportunities. Majority of SCs depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for the livelihood and their per capita income is found to be very low. The survey reveals that in spite of various development programmes running by the Central and State governments, SCs in the study areas remained socially and economically backward. So there is need of proper implementation of these programmes so that we can improve their social and economic backwardness. Keywords: Border Areas, Socio-economic conditions, Scheduled castes. www.isrj.net
SAN ORGANISATIONS ANALYSIS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC OF DEPRESSED STATUS CLASSES OF SCHEDULED IN LATE CASTES: COLONIAL A STUDY TAMIL OF BORDERAS NADU OF JAMMU DISTRICT INTRODUCTION: Economic development of a nation clearly contribute to economic status of its population when it enlarges the capabilities and enriches the lives of people without adversely affecting the well-being of others (Human Development Report, 2008). The concept of growth with social justice is said to be the basic philosophy of development underlying Indian Economic planning. Consistent with this concept, all development programmes in India have laid special stress upon the material upliftment of the backward classes who, because of years of exploitation have been exposed to vulnerabilities of all sorts. A significant subset of this group of backward classes is the scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) (Nayak and Parsad, 1984). Among the various socially deprived classes, scheduled castes suffer from the dual disabilities of severe economic exploitation and social discrimination while they constitute near about 16 per cent of the total population in the country and about 7.37 per cent in the state of J&K. Scheduled castes generally lives in rural areas of the country and majority of them are engaged in low wage agricultural activities and other degraded occupations like sweeping and scavenging(sub Plan, 2006). People, in general, and scheduled castes, in particular, living close to the international border have to deal with special problems arising out of their distinct geo-physical situation and associated socioeconomic conditions. They are facing hardship because of inadequate and/or lack of basic infrastructural facilities. Also, due to continuous disturbance caused by activities of the defence forces, the working season remains very short in the state, resulting in low levels of development. In view of the difficulties faced by the people, the present study is an attempt to analyze the economic status of scheduled castes residing in border areas of Jammu district and to assess the impact of economic development scheme on socioeconomic status of scheduled castes living in these areas. MAIN OBJECTIVES The present study is undertaken with the following objectives: To examine the social conditions of Scheduled Castes. To examine the economic conditions of Scheduled Castes. To suggest the suitable Solutions for their upliftment. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The present study is based on purposive and stratified sampling, which is done at four levels i.e., district, block, village and scheduled castes family. At the first level Jammu district has been selected from J&K state. Though blocks are taken as the second level of stratification, for practical reasons, only those blocks are selected which contains border areas. At the third stage villages are selected, only those villages are selected which are near the international border or actual line of control (ALC) and contain scheduled caste population, though, not in sufficient number. Finally families of scheduled castes were identified for investigation. The sample for the study comprises 100 households, 25 from each village. In order to supplement the primary data, secondary sources have also been used. MAIN FINDINGS 1. Demographic Profi le The study shows that maximum population of the study area is falling in the young age group of 0-14 years. The overall dependency ratio in the study area has been found to be moderate. Family planning programmes, recreational facilities, changing thinking of the people due to education and other factors results into moderate dependency ratio in the study area. 1.1 Family Size The study further reflects that majority of scheduled castes in the study area have a family size of 5-6 members. This shows that though the families with larger number of members are still prevailing among the scheduled caste communities, many families are following small family norms either willing or their inability to support large family size. The trend of nuclear families has also on increase. 2
ORGANISATIONS SAN ANALYSIS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC OF DEPRESSED STATUS CLASSES OF SCHEDULED IN LATE COLONIAL CASTES: A STUDY TAMIL OF NADU BORDERAS OF JAMMU DISTRICT 2. Living conditions Living conditions is an important indicator that reflects the economic status of the people. Regarding living conditions following observations has been made: 2.1 Type of house In the study it has been found that the housing conditions of the most of the scheduled caste respondents are not satisfactory. More than 50 per cent of households are living in semi-pacca houses, Kachcha houses and Kullas and have one or two rooms in their houses. This type of living condition not only affects the education of the children but also possess a threat to privacy and security of women folk. 2.2 Drinking water facility Source of drinking water to some extent also reflects the economic status of the people. The study shows that 78 per cent of the households in the study area fetch water from Hand pumps and 22 per cent are getting tap water. Further about 32% households have to go away from their homes to fetch water which creates lot of inconvenience to scheduled caste households especially to children and women. The distance covered by the scheduled caste households to fetch water varies between 0 to 500 meters. 2.3 Sanitation facility Lack of proper Sanitation facility is another important problem which the scheduled castes in the study area are facing. The percentage of households having latrine facility at their homes is considerably less (18%). This clearly shows the living conditions are very poor in the study area. 3. EDUCATIONAL STATUS 3.1 Literacy Rate Although literacy rate among scheduled castes is found to be 75.05 per cent, 86.50 per cent of the population studied upto high school only. Lack of educational facilities along with poverty results in high dropout rate especially at higher levels of education. Further, dropout rate is more among girls which clearly show the existence of discrimination between male and female child in the study area. The dropout rates for both boys and girls increase sharply as their education level increases in the study area. The dropout rate upto primary level in the study area is 11.3 per cent among boys, while it is 15.98 per cent among girls. Jointly 13.53 per cent left their education after primary level. Dropout after middle class is 22.92 per cent (28.03% among boys and 17.35% among girls). About 25.10 per cent left their education after high school. There are about 13.10 per cent pupil who left their education after higher secondary including 14.23 per cent boys and 11.87 per cent girls. The high cost of providing education and the need for children to work leads to the high dropout rate in the higher levels of education. This is particularly true for girls as poor scheduled caste families with limited resources would prefer to invest their money in son's education rather than in daughter's education. Although education at the lower level is free, there are other costs, including opportunity cost, expenditure on stationary and other learning material, which impose a significant financial burden on low income scheduled caste families. Thus, supply of human capital is constrained by poverty, lack of resources, shortage of schools, inadequate infrastructure and low emphasis on education, especially in scheduled caste community. 4. ECONOMIC STATUS 4.1 Number of earning members To examine the economic conditions of the scheduled caste families, the information about the earning members in the family was collected. It was found that majority (64%) of scheduled castes in the study area reported one earning member in their family. About 35 per cent of families are found to have 2-3 3
SAN ORGANISATIONS ANALYSIS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC OF DEPRESSED STATUS CLASSES OF SCHEDULED IN LATE CASTES: COLONIAL A STUDY TAMIL OF BORDERAS NADU OF JAMMU DISTRICT earning members. This shows lack of employment opportunities in the study area. 4.2 Income and Expenditure Income and expenditure pattern of scheduled caste households in the study area is somewhat similar among the villages. The major sources of household income are farming+dairy, contributing 24.77 per cent to the total income followed by wages which contribute about 22.42 percent to the total annual income in the study area. A very few scheduled castes in the study area derive their income in the form of salaries The broad image that emerges from the study is that the bottom76 per cent families in the study area have received a share of about 53.88 per cent of total scheduled caste income and the top 24 per cent have taken a share of about 42.12 per cent in the study area. This clearly shows that there exists wide inequality in the distribution of income among the scheduled castes in the study area. Per capita Annual income in the study area is found to be very low (Rs.27165.71) when compared with the state level per capita income (Rs.50806). As far as expenditure is concerned it has been found that Household consumption expenditure is very high (86.72%) relative to expenditure on livestock and farming. Overall it is realized that expenditure on food is highest (38.75%) followed by other miscellaneous items (15.26%) such as social ceremonies, festivals, functions, unforeseen contingencies, etc. It is also found that expenditure on alcohol and tobacco (7.75%) is higher than the expenditure on necessities such as education (6.85%) and clothing (4.56%). Thus, Tobacco and alcohol consumption is an important expenditure in the study area which crowds out other important expenditure. The crowding out of expenditure on necessities through tobacco consumption could have negative impact on the well being of individuals and families as well as the economy as a whole through reduced investment in human capital. 5. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS Scheduled castes are one of the groups which are most backward. The conditions in which they are living is far from satisfactory. Thus efforts should be made to improve their conditions especially those living in border areas with their access to basic common infrastructure such as road, electricity, drinking water, school, hospital and sanitation facilities, etc. Quality education is the key to development thus efforts should be made to motivate and provide education to the people living in border areas. Besides, employment should be raised by providing technical and vocational training so that they may get self employed. Reservations should also be made for the scheduled castes living in border areas to various educational institutions and central and state job so that their economic status can be raised. REFERENCES 1.Ahmad, K. (1979). Towards a Study of Education & Social Change. Economic and Political Weekly, 14(4), pp. 157-164. 2.Annual Report on Border Management. (2007-08). Retrived from www.iias,org/bordersboundaries.html. 3.Census of India. (2001). 4.Census of India. (2011). 5.Chetty, V. B. Krishnaiah. (1991). Scheduled castes And development programmes in India. Vohra Publishers & Distributors. Indraprastha, Delhi. 6.Dushkin, L. (1967). Scheduled caste policy in India: History, problems, prospects. Asian Survey, 7(9), 626-636. 7.Jain, L. C. (1981). Emancipation of scheduled castes and tribes: some suggestions. Economic and Political Weekly, 16(9), Feb. 28, 325-332. 8.Nayak, V., & Prasad S. (1984). On levels of living of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Economic and Political Weekly, July, 1205-1213. 9.Pandey, P. N. (1979). Education and social mobility among scheduled castes. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Sociology, Bhopal Hindu University, Bhopal. 10.Pattanaik, B. K.; Agnihotri, Sunil (2009). Border area problems in the Indo-Nepal border villages of Uttar Pradesh. Political Economy Journal of India, 18 (1). 11.Rajuladevi, A. K. (2001). Food poverty and consumption among landless labour households. Economic and Political Weekly, July,2656. 12.Scheduled Caste Sub Plan. (2006). Planning Commission, New Delhi. 4
AN ANALYSIS ORGANISATIONS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC OF DEPRESSED STATUS CLASSES OF SCHEDULED IN LATE CASTES: COLONIAL A STUDY TAMIL OF BORDERAS NADU OF JAMMU DISTRICTT 13.Singh, A. K. (1995). Social justice & reservation policy in Uttar Pradesh, Contemporary Social Work, 12, April, Lucknow University, Lucknow. 14.Singh, D. (2009). Development of scheduled castes in India: A review. Journal of Rural Development, 28 (4), 529-542. Pradeep Aror Research Scholar, Department of Economics, University of Jammu. 45