Ladakh most backward region in JK: Survey

According to data compiled by National Sample Survey Scheme Office (NSSO), division-wise backwardness index shows overall backwardness of Jammu and Kashmir is 55.68 per cent with Ladakh recording 87 percent backwardness, Jammu (60 per cent) and Kashmir (40 per cent) as per Census 2011 and Digest of Statistics (2012-13) by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics of J&K Government.

“The data has taken help of the data of four parameters, namely housing (pucca structures), facility of electricity, literacy rate of Jammu and Kashmir,” Director NSSO, Srinagar, Altaf Husain Haji told Rising Kashmir on the sidelines of a function held in connection with 9th Statistics Day.

The overall percentage of population below poverty line in Jammu and Kashmir is 10.3 as per 2011-12 survey comprising of 11.5 for rural and 7.2 for urban population.

However, other indicators of the infrastructure sector of Jammu and Kashmir are not too good as compared to other states, according to Hussain.

“In order to study the backwardness of Jammu and Kashmir, we tried to construct the backwardness index based on the data available in the directorate of Economic and Statistics and based on the following indicators: sector wise and district wise classification of Pucca houses in J&K, facilities of electricity sector and literacy rate as per Census data 2011 and female literacy rate as per Census data 2011,” Dr Hussain said.

As per district wise data of rural and urban sector, Leh has only 3.50 percent people living in pucca structures while literacy rate has been recorded as 47.02 and female literary 32.99.

Similarly, Muslim majority districts of Jammu figure at the bottom of backward indicators. Poonch shows a dismal trend in different indicators with only 13.90 percent people living in pucca houses and literacy rate of 58.15.

Other districts including Doda (pucca house-17.61, literacy rate-64.68 and female literacy rate- 36.80), Rajouri (21.84, 68.17, 38.35), Ramban (26.89, 54.27, 33.2) and Kishtwar (23.03, 56.19, 36.1)

On Monday, National Sample Survey Office, Srinagar in collaboration with Department of Economics, Central University of Kashmir celebrated the 9th Statistics Day at CUK Campus Nowgam.

“The aim and objectives of celebrating the day was to create awareness among the people especially the young  generation for drawing inspiration about the role of statistics in socio-economic planning and policy formulation,” said Director NSSO Srinagar, Altaf Hussain Haji.

Officiating Vice Chancellor CUK, Prof Mehraj-ud-Din, Registrar, M.A. Zargar were present on the occasion.

Prof Mehraj questioned the authenticity of the data produced by various statistical surveys conducted by governmental and non-governmental organisations.

He said one of the main reasons of failure of government schemes and planning was that the surveys on which they are based are never fool-proof.

“Instead of coming up with rough figures, it is better to concentrate on focussed areas and generate credible data so that an effective and factual data input is given to our policy makers and planners,” Mehraj said.

The theme of the function was ‘Social Development: Health, Education, Poverty, Employment, Social Backwardness, Housing and Environment with reference to the state of Jammu and Kashmir’.

A seminar under the same theme was also organised in which experts of statistics, and   teachers and students of CUK’s economics department presented their research papers.

Earlier, Haji gave a complete overview of the Statistics Day and said the day was being celebrated every year since 2006 in the honour of noted statistician P.C. Mahalanobis, who was a Bengali scientist and applied statistician.

He said the NSSO plays an important role in measuring the quality of some social development. “NSSO is responsible for conducting large scale sample surveys in diverse fields on all India basis.”