Spatial Distribution of Scheduled Castes in India – Essay
For the overall development of the country, it becomes necessary to study the rural poverty and to device out corrective measures for it. About 90 percent of the Scheduled Castes live in rural India and provide substantial support to Indian agriculture, which is the backbone of Indian economy. The general occupational structure of the Scheduled Castes is as follows:
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(i) Traditional industrial workers leather tanning and shoe-making etc.
(ii) Landless agricultural labourers
(iii) Cultivators with small land holdings
(iv) Persons engaged in polluted and dirty services (scavengers)
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(v) Small commodity producers or artisans
At the time of independence, Scheduled Caste population in India was 51.7 million; it increased to 104.7 million in 1981 and 138.2 million in 1991, recording a growth of 32.0 percent during 1981-91. According to 1991 census, Scheduled Caste population constitutes 16.48% of the total population of the country. As per Census 2011, Scheduled castes constitute 16.2% of the population. Punjab is the state with highest proportion of SCs (28.9%) while Mizoram (0.03%) has the lowest proportion of SCs.
Literacy among Scheduled Castes:
Literacy among the Scheduled Castes is relatively low. Nearly half of the males (49.91 per cent) and one-fourth of the females (23.76 per cent) of the Scheduled Caste are literate. Literacy among Scheduled Castes is better than that among the Scheduled Tribes. In general, the states with high literacy rate also have high literacy among the Scheduled Castes. Literacy is very low in Uttar Pradesh. Rajasthan and Bihar; medium in Haryana, Karnataka, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh and other states.
