PART III
PROFILE OF THE SAMPLE VILLAGES 3.1 Demographic profile The total population of the sample villages is 50564 with total households 7987 as per 2001 census. In 1991, total population of the villages were 36965 and total households were 6485. The decadal growth rate of population of the sample villages, thus, is 36.78, which is slightly higher than the decadal growth rate of Manipur (30.02) as well as district as a whole (29.81); and annual average rate of growth of population is 4.40 percent. The average household size of the sample villages is 6, which is almost same as the state average. All villages are fully scheduled tribe villages with mostly Christian people. Table 3.1 Total Population distribution in sample villages (2001 census) HH Population Male Female S.C Population S.T. Population 7978 50564 26588 23976 -- 50564 3.2 Sex Ratio As per Census 2001, the sex ratio in the sample villages is 901 females per thousand male, which is below the state (974) and district (944) sex ratios. Significantly, in 1991, these villages had the sex ratio of 783. The child sex ratio i.e. sex ratio in the age-group of 0-6 years, the district figure of 968 is higher than the overall sex ratio. However, child-sex ratio for Manipur as a whole is 957. 3.3. Literacy Rate The rate of literacy, as per census 2001, in the sample is 83.21 with that of male and female being 89.91 and 69.23 respectively. These rates are found to be higher than those of state as a whole, state (rural) and district (wholly rural). The figures are given below. Table 3.2 Literacy rate in sample villages of the district Place Total Male Female State (all) 66.00 68.77 52.01 State (rural) 57.41 65.89 48.63 District (all/rural) 70.59 77.67 63.06 Sample villages 83.21 89.91 69.23 3.4 Facilities One distinctive way of looking at the quality of life in a particular area, whether rural or urban, is to ascertain the presence, accessibility and utility of the social and physical infrastructure in these places. Lack of access to these facilities can emerge either due to the absence of social and/or physical infrastructure in the locality concerned, or because the facilities are beyond the acceptable and required distance apart from these being defunct.
3.4.1 Electricity Percentage of households using electricity as a source of light, especially in rural areas, is often considered to be indicative of households’ economic status. In the sample, it was found that 14 out of 25 (56 percent) villages are electrified. This figure also tells us about the reach of the rural electrification programmes in these villages. There are villages which were electrified as early as 1960 and there are villages electrified only recently, in 2006. But most of these villages were electrified in eighties and early nineties. It is also important to note that 2 villages got de-electrified in between. In terms of households, it was found that 79.69 percent of the sample households have electricity. It was also found that all use electricity for domestic lighting only. So far the adequacy of power supply, is concerned, there have been reported improvements. The average hour of power availability in the electrified villages was found to be 9 and ½ hours. Five years ago this was about 7 hours and ten years before it was about 6 hours. 3.4.2 Drinking water Availability and access to safe drinking water has been one of the most important indicators of basic household amenities. Providing safe drinking water to rural households has been India’s one of the priority issues since independence. Despite serious and sincere efforts, however, cent percent success across the country is yet to be achieved. Although Census 2001 reveals that in the District of Churachandpur 539 villages out of 546 (about 98 percent of the villages) have drinking water facility, out of which only 161 villages (about 30 percent) has access to safe drinking water. The survey also shows that in 23 (4363) households out of 25 villages depend on tanks and rivers for drinking water, and only 25 percent of the households has access to safe drinking water. The distribution of drinking water sources is given in the table below. Table: 3.3. Distribution of water sources by types in sample villages Type Common Muslim Christian Total Private Well 400 (2) 400 Private Tube well 50 (1) 50 Public Stand post 4 (1) 350 (4) 354 Tap water in-house 200 (1) 118 (2) 318 Tank/River 120 (1) 4363 (22) 4483 No in the parentheses gives the village counts. Source: Sample Village survey, 2008. 3.4.3 Toilet facility Safe sanitation is not only an important basic household amenity, but also an important issue of public health. The government of India has been trying to ensure safe sanitation to all households. The survey reveals that most of the households, about 77 percent, have pit latrines. Substantial households have “other” sanitation facility, which includes open fields and similar non sanitary toilets.
Table: 3.4. Distribution of sanitation facilities by types in sample villages Type Households (Christian) Septic Tank 63 (2) Service Latrine -- Pit 5621 (24) TSC -- Others 1584 (15) Total 7268 No in the parentheses gives the village counts. Source: Sample Village survey, 2008. 3.4.5 Education All together 76 schools were found in the 25 sample villages out of which 5 primary, 5 middle, 24 high/higher secondary, 22 religious schools and 20 other schools. Barring two villages (New Lamka and Bangmual), all villages have schools up to high/higher secondary levels. However, number of girls’ schools is very limited. Only in Chongkhojou a girls’ higher secondary school exists. This has implications in female literacy and education as evident in rate of literacy in earlier sections. Table: 3.5. Total number of schools within sample villages Schools Primary Middle High/ Religious Other
by type Higher Sec. school Boy/ Girls Boy/ Girls Boy/ Girls
co-ed co-ed co-ed No. of schools 4 1 3 2 23 1 22 20 Source: Sample Village survey, 2008 Presence of religious schools almost in all villages is noteworthy. So far the school locations are concerned, only 30 percent of schools are within the villages. Distance wise 40 percent are within 2 km and those which are in the district are more than 5 km away from the villages. These following two tables display these results. Table: 3.6. Distribution of schools by location Frequency School location Within village Within block Within district Total No. of Schools 23 2 51 76 Percent 30.3 2.6 67.1 100.0 Source: Sample Village survey, 2008 Table: 3.7. Distance to school from the villages Frequency Distance to school Up to 2 KM 2 to 5 KM More than 5 KM Total Frequency 31 7 38 76 Percent 40.8 9.2 50.0 100.0 Source: Sample Village survey, 2008
Since accessibility of school in many times, particularly in rural and difficult terrains, is conditioned by the all weather approach roads, this was also investigated in the survey. It could be found that most of the school approach roads (about 55 percent) are semi- pucca roads. Only 31.6 percent of the school connecting roads are pucca. The table below reveals this. Table: 3.8 Type of approach roads to school Frequency Type of approach road Pucca Semi-pucca Kutcha Total Frequency 24 42 10 76 Percent 31.6 55.3 13.2 100.0 Source: Sample Village survey, 2008 3.4.6 Health Facilities The survey shows that all sample villages have access to health-care facilities of various types. Most of the villages have access to some sorts of Dispensary/Hospital and Medicines shops. Government health care facilities such as health sub centres, primary health centres and community health centres are also found in the sample villages. Private qualified health care providers are reported in half of the villages. Only area which needs improvement is the Maternity and Child Care centre. Only two villages have reported to have access to MCC. This in turn has far reaching implications in child and reproductive health in the villages. Table: 3.9 Number of sample villages reporting medical facilities Health-care facility No Percent Sub centre 7 7.0 Primary HC 19 19.0 Community HC 15 15.0 Hospital/Dispensary 23 23.0 Pvt. qualified allopathic doctor 13 13.0 Maternity/child care centre 2 2.0 Chemist/medicine shop 21 21.0 Total 100 100.0 Source: Sample Village survey, 2008 Distance wise, however, the facilities are located mostly in the radius of 5 km or more (69 percent). Only a few (19 percent) are within the radius of less than 2 km and only 10 percent are within the same villages. The approach roads to these facilities are mostly semi-pucca (64 percent), these are easily accessible during summer both on foot (89 percent) and by vehicle (52 percent). During rainy season accessibility becomes a major issue as only 1 can be accessed on foot while raining. By vehicle, however, 11 of them can be reached even when it is raining. All weather accessibility is, thus, is a major issue so far health care is concerned in these villages. It was also found that only in nine villages have ANN and doctors in health centres and out of them medicines and regular check ups are reported to be available only in six villages.
3.4.7 Other facilities The distance between most of the sample villages and the nearest town has been found more than 10 km. Nonetheless, the survey shows that the sample villages have fair access to various facilities like market, bus stop, post office, Block Head Quarter and Banks. However, facilities like panchayat office, fair price shops and veterinary hospitals are found lacking in the villages. The following table depicts the comparative picture of facilities available in the villages. Table: 3.10. Number of sample villages reporting other facilities within villages Facilities within villages No. of villages Bus stop 19 Regular Market 21 Post office 24 G.P. Office 9 Fair Price Shop 10 Mandi 8 Veterinary Hospital 11 Block Head Quarter 25 Nearest Town 24 Bank 19 Source: Sample Village survey, 2008 It was also found that only in five out of 25 villages possess all the facilities. These facilities are mostly available out side the villages and their respective blocks which are located beyond 10 km of distance (67 percent). Only 6 percent of the villages have these facilities within the villages and 10 percent of the villages have the facilities within the blocks. Approach roads to these facilities are mostly (47 percent) semi-pucca. Table: 3.11. No. of sample villages reporting distance of other facilities outside village Distance Total <= 2 km 2 to 5 km 5 to 10 km >10 KM Block HQ 8 3 1 13 25 Nearest Town 3 2 1 17 23 Nearest Bus Stop 5 2 0 10 17 Regular market 3 2 0 13 18 Rail station 1 0 0 23 24 Post office 5 2 2 14 23 Bank 2 3 1 12 18 Gram panchayat 1 0 0 8 9 FP Shopo 1 0 1 7 9 General shop 2 0 1 7 10 Mandi 0 0 0 7 7 Vaterinary 3 0 1 7 11 Source: Sample Village survey, 2008
3.5 Common property and Village organizations Forests and forest based products are found to be mostly (68 percent cases) used common property resources among the sample villages. It was also found that every household has access and rights over forests and forest based resources. Significantly no encroachment has been reported. Table 3.12 Distribution of village organisations in the sample villages Organisation Status Very active Fairly active Marketing organisation 1 -- Farmers’ organisation -- 1 Voluntary organisation 8 2 Political organisation 5 2 Cultural organisation 12 4 Women mandal 1 -- Youth mandal 23 2 Several village organisations were found active in the villages. Voluntary organisations, cultural organisations and youth organisations were prominent among them. The following table depicts the distribution of village organisations among the sample villages. 3.6 Crop productivity and Household Artisans Paddy, cereals and vegetables are major crops in the same villages. Average yield for paddy is 10.43 (with standard deviation of 2.47). The average yield for cereals and vegetables are 28.50 and 8.45 respectively. Harvest share of paddy is found to be 20 percent. The average maximum market price of paddy is 2127 Rs. per quintal. The average minimum market price for paddy is Rs. 1522 per quintal. Likewise average maximum and minimum market prices for cereals are Rs. 1100 and Rs. 800 per quintal respectively, while the same are Rs. 2161 and Rs. 1520 per quintal for vegetables. In 13 out of 25 villages households were found engaged in various artisan activities. The products are sold in and outside markets. Some problems of raw material and marketing were reported. 3.7 Migration and employment and wage income earning The survey showed that of the thirty sample villages, only a small number of people from villages moved out looking for work. The survey results indicate that approximately 50 to 60 people daily went outside their villages during last one year looking for work. Majority of these people (77 percent) go to neighbouring villages, block and district headquarters. Most of the migrant workers work as daily labourers. On an average they earn 2000 to 3000 rupees per month from such works.
3.8 Rural Development programmes and beneficiaries assisted So far as the individual beneficiary oriented government programmes are concerned, it was found that employment guarantee scheme under NREGA is operational in 24 out of 25 villages. On an average about 300 persons per village were found benefited from the scheme. About 84 percent of the villages believed that over the last 5 years, flow of schemes has increased. It was also found that on the average 96 days employment were generated under the scheme. Table: 3.13. Scheme based work generated for men and women and the daily wage Schemes No. workers Average Wage rate per day Male Female Male Female NREGA 5825 1367 80 80 Source: Sample Village survey, 2008 It was found that 206 people have received old age pension benefits in 14 villages out of which 201 received pension in the last year. Similarly 11 women from 3 villages received widow pension of whom 9 were assisted last year. Of the total sample villages 782 people of 25 villages reported government job. Almost all villagers perceive that there have been improvements in terms of agricultural productivity, access to education and wage rates compared to the past years. 3.9 Poverty and Public Distribution System It could be found that PDS was available in 5 villages out of 25. However most of the PDS shops are located at more than 2 km distance. About 1300 people have BPL ration cards out of whom about 250 to 300 people buy rations from PDS. About 40 percent of the buyers felt that availability of the required goods is satisfactory and they get their full quota. Most of the customers have no problem with quality, honesty and behaviour of the fair price shop keepers. On the whole the PDS is found to be working well although in limited places. 3.12 Summary The village survey findings reveal that sample villages in the district has many areas of concern as well as potentials. Improving the accessibility and quality of service delivery of the crucial social security provisions has emerged as the major challenge of development. Bridging the critical infrastructure gaps in terms of communication and connectivity is another are where concerted efforts are urgently needed. Ensuring decent and gainful employment and livelihood options should be viewed in a more holistic way for designing development programmes. In the subsequent sections these issues are dealt with some greater detail with the insights gathered at the household level. ■
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