There was a significant reduction in the overall estimated footfall for outpatient and inpatient care at the all-India level between 2014 and 2017–18. However, the reduction in estimated footfalls was significantly higher in private facilities as compared to public facilities. Also, states with better health infrastructure observed a relatively lesser reduction in the overall footfall under public facilities than states with weaker health infrastructure. Across all economic deciles, there was no significant fall in the proportion of patients utilising public healthcare facilities in 2017–18 compared to 2014.
This article presents a comparative analysis of poverty reduction and pro-poorness of growth in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu during the post-reform period. We use the unit-level data of the Consumer Expenditure Surveys of the National Sample Survey Office to estimate the poverty ratio for both rural and urban areas of these states. The first period (1993–94 to 2004–05) recorded a slow poverty reduction, but the second period (2004–05 to 2011–12) witnessed a faster reduction in poverty in rural and urban areas in both the states concerned.
Political Economy of Agricultural Development in India: Policies, Achievements and Concernsby Akina Venkateswarlu, Delhi: Aakar Books, 2021; pp xvii + 554, ₹1,695.
Intended or not, projects under the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes scheme will compete with private rental housing options in Indian cities. Examining the scheme guidelines and using data from the National Sample Survey Office, this article establishes the dimensions of this competition, and the chances of ARHC projects to participate in the `1.2 lakh crore rental housing market in urban India. ARHC projects could have better quality/rent ratios as compared to private rental housing. However, their profit-centred models will face locational and management disadvantages, and also reduce tenure security, leading to lack of demand and limited outcomes.
Data from National Sample Surveys (71st round, 2014 and 75th round, 2017–18) show that there is a significant increase in the utilisation of public facilities for both outpatient and inpatient services, across empowered action group states and non-EAG states. As a result, there is a dramatic fall in the overall financial burden on patients who would have otherwise used services of private healthcare providers. In light of this evidence, this paper argues that it is prudent to invest more directly to strengthen public healthcare delivery system in India.
Changes in the incidence of vegetarianism across time are sought to be analysed by identifying the specific trends at the level of region,caste and class. Divergence in the attitude towards vegetarianism across these axes points towards deepening divides linked to socioeconomic status and cultural-political power inequalities.
Large-scale survey data are used to question the most public claims about food habits in India. It is found that the extent of overall vegetarianism is much less—and the extent of overall beef-eating much more—than suggested by common claims and stereotypes. The generalised characterisations of “India” are deepened by showing the immense variation of food habits across scale, space, group, class, and gender. Additionally, it is argued that the existence of considerable intra-group variation in almost every social group (caste, religious) makes essentialised group identities based on food practices deeply problematic. Finally, in a social climate where claims about food practices rationalise violence, cultural–political pressures shape reported and actual food habits. Indian food habits do not fit into neatly identifiable boxes.
The major rounds of Employment–Unemployment Surveys conducted by the National Sample Survey Office every five years provide a continuous, robust, and reliable source of employment statistics in India. However, a closer analysis of the unit-level figures for the latest round of eus reveals disparities in the details of the industry–occupation information.
The number of "poor" derived by applying price adjustment to an old consumption basket, which is largely what official poverty measures have done, are very different from estimates based on actual consumption baskets that have changed over time. For instance, the share of cereals in household expenditure halved between 1993-94 and 2011-12 in rural areas. In the light of this, we ask if all expenditure would be on food, what percentage of the population would be unable to meet the prescribed calorie requirement? Adding a "minimum" level of expenditure on clothing-bedding-footwear, fuel and light, and conveyance to the "derived" sum of food expenditure provides a second counterfactual. Similarly, the cumulative addition of expenditure on other consumer goods and services provides further counterfactual scenarios.
Why does data about increasing rural consumption shock us? Urban imagination sees the rural as a static, timeless domain where people are bare-minimalists lacking in ambition, agency or entrepreneurship. However, even if agriculture is declining, the rural isn’t. The rural is getting reconstituted amidst this confusion with ambivalent trends.
