Socio-Economic Impact of HIV and AIDS in Tamil nadu

Table 3.3
Distribution of sample households
by household income categories
(in Percentages)
Characteristics HIV households Non-HIV households
Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total
Annual HH income (Rs.)
1. Upto 20,000 44.8 20.9 33.9 9.5 4.3 7.2
2. 20,001-30,000 22.9 16 19.8 34.3 21.2 28.3
3. 30,001-41,000 10.8 15 12.7 19.2 16.8 18.1
4. 41,001-84,000 19.3 35.3 26.6 30.3 43 36.2
5. 84,000 & above 2.3 12.8 7.1 6.6 14.7 10.3
Average HH income (Rs.) 29,019 51,556 39,298 41,586 57,450 48,878
household heads and 38 percent of the
non-HIV household heads were wage
earners. About 17 percent of the heads
of HIV households and nearly 22 percent
of non-HIV household heads were salary
earners. While the distribution according
to occupational groups was similar
between both the households, certain
variations in the category of distribution
according to income were observed.
3.1.1 Economic status of the
sample households
Although an effort was made to draw
the sample of non-HIV households to
match the income distribution levels of
HIV households, the two did not work
out to be exactly similar. While nearly
34 percent of HIV households are from
the lowest income group of less than Rs.
20,000 per annum, only about 7 percent of
non-HIV households belong to this group.
While 33 percent of HIV households
are in the income range of Rs. 20,001 to
Rs. 41,000, the non-HIV households in
this range account for 46 percent of the
sample. Consequently, the percentage
of households with income above Rs.
41,001 among the non-HIV sample is 47
percent while it is only 33 percent among
HIV households. Because of this, it is seen
that the average household income of HIV
households is less than that of non-HIV
households in all three; rural, urban, and
total samples. The average household
income has worked out to Rs. 48,878 for
non-HIV households and Rs. 39,298 for
HIV households. Thus, it is clear from
the table that most of the sample HIV
households belong to low economic and
educational strata of society. Although
there is enough evidence to show that it is
the poor people who are more vulnerable
to HIV and AIDS (UNDP, 2003), in the
present sample there are more households
from the poor and low-income categories
due to yet another reason. In spite of
their best efforts, the field investigators
could not get access to the middle, upper
middle class and rich households as they
drew their sample mainly from public
health facilities and NGOs, which mostly
cater to poor/low-income households.
Generally the middle/rich PLWHA would
approach only private health facilities
for reasons of anonymity. The doctors
at a reputed private hospital in Tamil
Nadu corroborated this observation. In
an informal discussion with them, it was
learnt that PLWHA do visit them for the
treatment of opportunistic infections but
due to reasons of confidentiality, the field
investigators could not get access to such
persons.
The average
household income
of HIV households
is less than
that of non-HIV
households in all
three; rural, urban,
and total samples
Profile of Sample Households and PLWHA
23