India on Friday released the results of a census that gives the first large-scale picture of India’s caste and socio-economic makeup since 1932.
The numbers from the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 reveal where Indians live, what work they do and what kind of products they own. They are separate from the Census of India that is carried out every 10 years, and highlight major gaps in education and job opportunities.
Here are 10 key numbers, all relating to houses in rural areas, from the census.
4.58%
The percentage of households where someone pays income tax.
Less than 10% of households get their income from a salaried job. Of these, around 5% are employed in government jobs, just over 1% in the public sector and 3.5% in private entities.
In only 8% of households, the highest earning member makes Rs. 10,000 ($157) or more a month. It is hardly a surprise then, that fewer than 5% pay income tax.
11.04%
The percentage of households with a refrigerator. Whether they have the electricity to run it is another question.
Goa has the highest percentage of households in rural areas with a fridge–at 69%. By contrast, in Bihar, only 2.61% of households in the countryside have a fridge.
NO PHONES
50 million
Households that don’t own a landline or a mobile phone. Roughly 70% of the 179 million rural households in India own cellphones.
But 27% have neither a cellphone nor a landline. The eastern states of Chhattisgarh and Orissa, home to some of India’s largest indigenous populations, have the lowest access to telecommunications.
DIVORCEES
1,052,210
Divorced people living in rural areas. That’s just 0.12% of the population. Divorce is very rare in India.
FAMILY SIZE
4.93
Average household size in rural areas. Though in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most-populous state with 200 million people, the average number of people in a rural household is 6.26.
WOMEN HEADS
12.83%
The percentage of households headed by a woman.
MANUAL SCAVENGERS
180,657
The number of people who carry out manual scavenging, a practice of collecting human waste from primitive dry latrines by hand, which is outlawed but persists. Manual scavengers are usually from the lowest rungs of the Hindu caste system (Indian Muslim communities have similar low-status members who perform this job) and women, according to U.S. human-rights group Human Rights Watch.
MECHANIZATION
4%
Of households own mechanized equipment with three or four wheels for carrying out manual labor through which they earn a living.
Nearly 40% of households don’t own land and earn wages through casual, manual labor. Agriculture is tough work, with 40% of rural land still lacking irrigation facilities.
LEARNING
35%
More than 35% of rural Indians are illiterate, with the highest numbers of those who can’t read or write coming from the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.
MAKESHIFT HOUSING
45%
Nearly half of rural households still live in what are called “kuccha” houses, which include structures made of materials such as thatch, mud, plastic and wood.
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