Missing the Bus:Development in India

The NCAER’s Human Development Report on India sets out the findings of a survey of rural India conducted six years ago. A stratified sample of 33,000 households was chosen for study, in 1,765 villages, spread over 16 states. There is also a short report on qualitative studies of a few villages.

Human development, the report says, “is a wide concept, encompassing literacy and knowledge, health and longevity, material well-being and levels of disposable incomes. Given these broad parameters, this survey essentially sets out to compute literacy, and enrolment rates, morbidity rates, levels of household and per capita income, movable and immovable asset ownership, wage employment and wage rates, and household expenditures on schooling and health care... A series of 28 village studies (two each in 14 selected states) were also undertaken to understand the qualitative dimension of human development...A synthesis of the village studies is included in this report.”