Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Access to basic amenities such as drinking water, sanitation, electricity and drainage is imperative for a decent quality of life. The need for these basic amenities has been universally recognised and has been a major plank in the formulation of several policies and programmes in India. While rural households in India have witnessed a gradual improvement in the access to basic amenities in proportional terms, they continue to face high levels of deprivation. Adding to such a grim scenario are appalling socio-economic disparities and exclusions that have been highlighted in this article using data from the Census of India, 2001 and 2011, and the National Sample Survey (NSS) Housing Conditions Round unit records data, 1993 and 2008/09. Determinants of households having access to basic amenities have been estimated using an econometric exercise and the contribution of caste-based factors of the gap in accessing basic amenities among various social groups has been estimated using the decomposition technique on household-level information and NSS unit record data 2008/09. Households belonging to the weaker sections of society, such as, the poor, wage labourers, Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes, have been found to be the most deprived, neglected and excluded. The findings of this article call for immediate action towards providing adequate basic amenities with inclusive and group-specific provisions with a focus on socio-spatial situatedness of households in rural India so as to enhance the overall quality of life and well-being.

Keywords

Basic amenities rural India standard of living socio-economic groups

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bhagat

R.B.

(2013). Conditions of SC/ST households: A story of unequal improvement. Economic and Political Weekly, 48(41), 62–66.

Borooah

V.K.

, Diwakar

, & Sabharwal

N.S.

(2014). Evaluating the social orientation of the integrated child development services programme. Economic and Political Weekly, 49(12), 52–62.

Dreze

, & Sen

(2013). An uncertain glory: India and its contradictions. New Delhi: Penguin Books.

Dubey

, & Thorat

(2012). Has growth been socially Inclusive during 1993–94–2009–10? Economic and Political Weekly, 47(10), 43–53.

Fairlie

R.W.

(2006). An extension of the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition technique to Logit and Probit models. Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), IZA Discussion Paper No. 1917 & Economic Growth Center, Yale University, Discussion Paper No. 873.

Kumar

(2012). Access to basic amenities: Aspects of caste, ethnicity, religion, livelihood categories and poverty in rural and urban India during 1993 to 2008–09. Working Paper No. 53, Indian Institute of Dalit Studies (under Think Tank Initiative programme, IDRC), New Delhi.

Kumar

(2014a). Access to basic amenities: Aspects of caste, ethnicity and poverty in rural and urban India—1993 to 2008–2009. Journal of Land and Rural Studies, 2(1), 127–48.

Kumar

(2014b). Estimating rural housing shortage, review of rural affairs. Economic and Political Weekly, 49(26–27), 74–79.

Kumar

(2014c). Sanitation in rural India: An analysis of households’ latrine facility. Journal of Studies in Dynamics and Change, 1(6): 231–46.

10.

Kumar

(2015). Discrepancies in sanitation statistics of rural India. Economic and Political Weekly, 50(2), 13–15.

11.

Planning Commission. (2011). Faster, sustainable and more Inclusive growth: An approach to the twelfth five year plan (2012–17). New Delhi: Planning Commission, Government of India.

12.

Sinning

, Hahn

, & Bauer

T.K.

(2008). The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition for nonlinear regression models. The Stata Journal, 8(4): 480–92.

13.

Thorat

(2008). Dalits in India—Search for common destiny. New Delhi: SAGE Publications.

14.

Thorat

, & Mahamallick

(2006). Chronic poverty and socially disadvantage groups: Analysis of causes and remedies. Working Paper 33, Chronic Poverty Centre, London and Indian Institute of Public Administration.

15.

Thorat

, & Newman

(2010). Blocked by caste: Economic discrimination in modern India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

16.

United Nations. (2013). Inequality matters: Report of the world social situation 2013. New York: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations.

17.

World Bank. (2013). Inclusion matters: The foundation for shared prosperity. New Frontiers of Social Policy. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

Rural Households’ Access to Basic Amenities in India: Deprivation and Socio-economic Exclusions

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References