57% households are landless; 83% have mobile phones

Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) data reflects the state of poverty and deprivation across the countryside

• Breadwinners of 94 per cent of households make less than `10,000 a month
• More than 40 per cent of the State population still illiterate

Hyderabad: In a sharp contrast, though 57 per cent of the total 56.43 lakh households in rural Telangana are landless and 49.48 per cent of households depend on manual labour for livelihood, a whopping 83.79 per cent of households own mobile phones. This apart, the main breadwinners of over 94 per cent of households are making less than Rs 10,000 a month.

The latest Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) data reflects the state of poverty and deprivation in rural India besides social trends such as ownership of assets, educational, employment and gender dynamics.

Among the crucial findings of the survey was 40.44 per cent of the total 2.33 crore rural population in the State are still illiterates. While the percentage of those who stopped their education at primary level is 10.72, only 4.21 per cent are graduated or above.

While Rangareddy tops the State in highest proportion for graduates or above with 5.73 per cent, Karimnagar and Khammam districts are closely followed by 5.33 per cent and 5.14 per cent respectively. On the other hand, with just 2.22 per cent, Mahbubnagar stood last in the State.

While Karimnagar district has 62.25 per cent of the total 7.52 lakh households depending on casual manual labour for sustenance, Nizamabad district has the lowest number in the State with 26.56 per cent of its 5.31 lakh households.

Surprisingly, the drought-prone Mahbubnagar district tops the State with its 33.53 per cent of 7.35 lakh rural households still dependent on cultivation. Indicating the people’s penchant for communication, about 83.79 per cent of 56.43 lakh households in the State own a mobile phone, much higher than nation’s average 68.30.

While Medak tops the State with 95 per cent of its rural households having mobile phones, Adilabad lies last with 73.81 per cent. In a sharp contrast, the patronage for landline phones continues to dwindle compared to mobile phone usage in the State.

While only 1.18 per cent of rural households have a landline phone facility, the households with both mobile and landline phones constitute about 1.90 per cent of the rural population, with Nizamabad the highest among the districts at 8.98 per cent.

About 30.26 per cent of rural households own any kind of a motor vehicle (two, three or four wheelers that require registration) in the State. The other major finding of the SECC census was that 57 per cent of rural households are landless and their income source is manual casual labour.

While the main breadwinners of over 94 per cent of households are making less than Rs 10,000 a month, 75.29 per cent are earning less than Rs 5,000 a month. The rural households remain largely dependent on self-employment or the unorganised sector.

Just 7.69 per cent of households are dependent on salaried jobs, of which the majority is in private and government sector jobs with 2.98 per cent and 2.74 per cent respectively. While Rangareddy (17.16%) and Karimnagar (14.19%) districts are on top with highest salaried jobholders, Mahbubnagar (3.73%) stands last in the State.

Predictably, majority of households (83.40%) in the State are male-headed, nearly 16.59 per cent households are female-headed. The population of the rural Telangana is 2.33 crore with 1.18 crore men, 1.15 crore women and 2,003 transgenders.

In all, there are 82.43 lakh households in Telangana. Out of which 31.55 per cent are in urban areas. It may be mentioned here that average size of a rural Indian household is 4.93.