Dropout rate high in Telangana rural areas

Hyderabad: Chief Minster K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s home district Medak has emerged as the humanities capital of the state with the bulk of students in this stream belonging to Scheduled Caste groups. 

The Telangana Social Development Report-2017 reveals nearly 14 per cent of respondents had never enrolled in schools, and this proportion varies across districts with the lowest being in Nizamabad (1.3 per cent) and the highest Mahbubnagar district (37 per cent). 

Only three-fourths of those who enrolled completed their studies in the state, with completion rates being significantly lower in rural areas. There has been an increasing shift towards private education.

The report said that there are very interesting patterns that emerge in terms of the distribution of courses pursued by students across locations and social groups. 

The report said for instance Medak emerges as the humanities capital of the state with the bulk of students in this stream belonging to SC groups.

Only one-tenth of sample households have computers.

Except in Hyderabad (26 per cent) and Ranga Reddy (19 per cent) districts, all the other districts report less than 10 per cent of households with computers.

Within computer-owning households, computing skills are fairly well spread across districts, gender, religious and social groups.

The base, however, needs to be expanded considerably. 

The report said institutional births are high at 96 per cent in urban and 87 per cent in rural. Institutional births in public facilities are very low — only 27 per cent for urban and 34 per cent for rural areas. 

TS has higher morbidity in rural areas (9.7 per cent) than urban areas (9.5 per cent) as against the national pattern of 8.9 per cent and 11.8 per cent for rural and urban areas respectively.

As far as medical expenditure is concerned it was higher in rural areas ('21, 683) than the national average. ('16,956).

The report observed the high health expenditure may be attributed to the higher prevalence of acute morbidity and the dependence of people on private hospitals for treatment.

The report said about one-fifth of youth was neither in the labour force nor in educational institutions during 2011-2012, this percentage was only 14.5 per cent during 2004-05, 11 per cent of the youth are not school going in the state.

Nearly 96 per cent of youth did not receive a technical education, 62 per cent had educational qualifications above the secondary level in 2011-12, making a strong case for well-conceived, sustainable opportunities and viable livelihoods. 

The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is higher in TS than the national average, however, like the national pattern the LFPR in Telangana, too, declined in 2011-2012.

The decline in the rural labour force is higher than the urban and the decrease is sharper among females than males. The worker-population ratio (WPR) is entirely the opposite of the national pattern. While there is a sharp decline in WPR among STs at the national level, the ST WPR is increasing in TS.