Children - Terre des Hommes

79
Rajasthan
State Overview
Rajasthan, the largest state in India in terms of area, has a
population of 56,507,188 56 and a total State Domestic
Product (SDP) of Rs. 1,451 billion (2007-8). 57 According to
the Human Development Report Rajasthan 2008, the high
growth rates that were seen in the state in the 1980s and 1990s
have slowed down in the new millennium primarily due to
a slowing down in the primary sector, mainly agriculture. 58
Agriculture is still the largest employment sector in the state,
with around 80 per cent of the population living in rural areas
and dependent on farming for their survival.
Agriculture accounts for the largest single share in Rajasthan’s
economy and was worth over Rs. 289 billion in 2006-07. 59
Rajasthan’s other key sectors are manufacturing, construction,
tourism and industries, such as textiles, rugs, woollen goods,
vegetable oils and dyes. In the 1990s, there was a rapid increase
in mining, unregistered manufacturing, communications and
real estate. During the same period, there was a decrease in
agriculture, forestry and registered manufacturing. 60 This
fall in registered manufacturing and rise in unregistered
manufacturing, along with an increase in mining and quarrying
work, has been highlighted as particularly worrying in terms
of the availability of quality employment in the state. 61
In the face of repeated droughts, and with more agricultural
land being turned over to mining and industry, many people
have been forced to devise alternative adaptation strategies
for survival, as agriculture is becoming increasingly difficult to
depend on. The rapid growth in population in the 1980s has
meant that there has been a 2 per cent growth in the workforce
leaving large numbers of people in Rajasthan in dire need of
jobs. Although significant strides were made in reducing rural
poverty in Rajasthan in the 1980s and 1990s—rural poverty
declined from 33 per cent in 1983 to 13 per cent in 1999—this
has marginally increased again during the new millennium. 62
According to the Census 2001, 17.16 per cent of Rajasthan’s
population are SCs and 12.56 per cent are STs. This is
slightly higher than the national average of 16.2 per cent
for SCs and 8.2 per cent for STs. The vast majority of the SC
and ST population lives in the rural areas of Rajasthan and
are traditionally dependent on agriculture for their
livelihoods.
The provision of education and healthcare in the rural areas has
struggled to keep up with the growth in the state’s population.
Whilst the population increased by 24 per cent between
1997 and 2006, the number of PHCs and sub-centres only
increased by 10 per cent, from 1,616 to 1,712 respectively and
from 9,400 to 10,515, during the same period. This may go
some way towards explaining why the state still continues to
perform poorly in terms of health outcomes. 63 In 2006, the
average life expectancy in Rajasthan was 61.7, which is lower
than the national average of 63.2 for the same year. 64
56. Census of India, 2001.
57. http://statistics.rajasthan.gov.in/GSDP_NSDP_PCI.pdf.
58. Human Development Report Rajasthan 2008, Prepared for the Government of Rajasthan by the Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur.
59. Indiastat.com, Net State Domestic Product at Factor Cost by Industry of Origin in Rajasthan.
60. Human Development Report Rajasthan 2008, Prepared for the Government of Rajasthan by the Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur.
61. Ibid.
62. Ibid.
63. Ibid
64. Ministry of Finance, Government of India, Economic Survey, 2007-08, chapter 23, pp. 29.