According to the census of 1991, literacy the most basic indicator of education, was 42.9 percent. This is marginally less than the literacy rate of 44.7 percent for undivided Madhya Pradesh. Female literacy is very low at 27.5 percent, especially rural female literacy, which is at 21 percent.

Literacy in Chhattisgarh in 1991.

Source : Primary Census Abstract, Census of India 1991, Registrar General of India.

The low level of literacy, especially amongst women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is a cause for concern. The literacy rate amongst the Scheduled Tribes was 39 percent in 1991 and 27 percent amongst the scheduled tribes.

The general enrolment and access to primary schools in the undivided Madhya Pradesh, including areas of Chhattisgarh has received a tremendous boost in the last decade with increased availability of functional primary schools and the starting of the Education Guarantee Scheme.

Outcome indicators in health are not available separately for Chhattisgarh for current years. Information is available for entire Madhya Pradesh on infant mortality rate, birth rate and death rate through the Sample Registration Scheme of the Registrar General of India. According to these estimates, the Infant Mortality Rate of Madhya Pradesh was in the high nineties in the last years of the 1990. It was 97 in 1996 and 94 in 1997. At the same time the IMR for the rest of India was 72 and 71. Data for Chhattisgarh region is available from the regional estimates of the Sample Registration Scheme till the year 1992. In 1990, 1991 and 1992 the Infant Mortality Rate for rural Chhattisgarh fluctuated from 82.7 to 111.8 and then to 76.5, while the Infant Mortality Rate for all of rural Madhya Pradesh moved from 120 to 125 to 109. The Infant Mortality Rates for rural Chhattisgarh are significantly lower than for entire rural Chhattisgarh are significantly lower than for entire rural Madhya Pradesh. The Death Rates in rural Chhattisgarh are lower than Death rates for Rural Madhya Pradesh in the same years.

Data from the Census of 1991 also give us mortality and fertility indicators for the year 1991. The table below presents some basic health indicators from 1991. The life expectancy at birth in Chhattisgarh is better as compared to Madhya Pradesh. In 1991, while the Life expectancy in Chhattisgarh was 61.4 years, it was 57.3 years for the entire Madhya Pradesh. What is also very encouraging in Chhattisgarh is that female life expectancy in higher than that of males.

Mortality indicators are still very high. The Infant Mortality Rates of 12 of 47 achieved by states like Kerala and Maharashtra respectively shows the long distance yet to be covered by Chhattisgarh. Other mortality and fertility indicators have the same story. Basic primary health care pre and postnatal care, nutritional status and preventive care are the essential requirements of the new state. It’s long distances, large forest cover, a large number of forest villages and remote village make the issues of access and delivery of health care a crucial issue.

Health Indicators of Chhattisgarh, 1991

Source : Indicators calculated from Fertility Tables, Census of India 1991, Registrar General of India, New Delhi.

The 1991 census provides detailed information on the type of houses occupied in Chhattisgarh as well as access to basic amenities of safe drinking water, electricity, and sanitation by households. More than three fourths of the households in Chhattisgarh resided in semi-pucca houses and about 19 percent lived in pucca houses. Eleven percent rural houses in 1991 were kutcha houses. In terms of access to amenities the table below shows the situation as in 1991.

Source : Household tables, Census of India 1991, Registrar General of India, New Delhi.                                    

Information on Employment in Chhattisgarh is available on a comprehensive scale only from the Census of 1991. The analysis has therefore been based on data from the year.

The Worker Participation Rate in Chhattisgarh was 47.7 percent, 54.3 percent for males and 41 percent for females. This is much higher when compared to the Worker Participation Rate in Madhya Pradesh, which is 41.1 percent. The high Worker Participation Rate for females is commensurate with paddy being a major crop for the region. Paddy is sown in around 90 percent of the total sown area under cereals in kharif and about 85 percent of all area sown under food grains in kharif in Chhattisgarh. The southern and eastern districts have the highest worker participation rates, all well above fifty percent. The same areas of Bastar, Dantewara, Kanker, Rajnandgaon and Kawardha also have high female worker participation rates.

The Farm Sector dominates employment. The census of 1991 found that 82 percent of all workers and 90 percent of rural workers were involved in farm related activities including cultivation and agriculture allied activities. After the primary sector, the services sector offers the highest employment. Eleven percent of the entire Chhattisgarh and fifty two percent of urban employment was in the services sector.

Estimates of poverty are available from two main sources. One is the large surveys undertaken by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) every five years and the second is from the State Government own surveys conducted to identify household below the poverty line for the express purpose of benefit under poverty alleviation programmes. Results for the NSS survey of 1993-94 are available, wherein two estimates have been given. One is the poverty line head count ratio depending on the official poverty line and the other is as suggested by the Expert Group set up by the Planning Commission on estimates of poverty. While there is still some lack of certainty on the head count ratio, we use the recommendations of the Expert Group, as calculated by NSSO’s special study. The total estimated head count ratio for poverty in 1993-94 was 28.6 percent which was marginally lower at 25.74 percent for rural Chhattisgarh and much higher at 42.2 percent for urban Chhattisgarh. In the same year, the overall poverty ratio was found to be 33.51 percent for all India and 31.3 percent for the undivided Madhya Pradesh.

Official PL : Poverty Line as per Planning Commission
Expert PL : Poverty Line as per recommendations of the Expert Group on Poverty

Source : Counting the poor Sarvekshana Analytical report 1, Department of Statistics, Government of India, 1998

The Human Development Index has become an important index for measuring the progress that districts have achieved in the level and depth of human development of its citizens. This index is a composite index of three main components of human development; knowledge (which is measured by literacy and children’s enrolment in schools); longevity ( measured by expectancy of life at birth); and access to resources to lead a reasonable quality of life (measured by per capital incomes, and adjusted to reduce the impact of very high per capita incomes and sensitised to levels of poverty in the districts).

There is insufficient data available for fifteen of the sixteen districts of Chhattisgarh for developing Human Development Index based indicators directly associated with the districts. However, data is available for the seven original districts. Since Durg is the only district that was not divided data is available for this district. Of all the other fifteen districts data is available for literacy for all of the fifteen, but on other indicators we have applied the indicators of the parent district to the divided districts for constructing the Human Development Index. District Durg comes out on top followed by Dhamtari, Raipur, Bilaspur and then Korba. At the bottom lies Kawardha district, which was carved out from Rajnandgaon. The other districts at the bottom come from the northern most and southern most districts of Surguja, Dantewara, Bastar Raigarh and Koriya.