Socio-Economic Impact of HIV and AIDS in Tamil nadu

Chapter 4
Impact of HIV Status on
Income and Employment
4.1 Income and its
distribution
Income is the major determinant of
household welfare. Households derive
their income from many sources. This
study defines the occupational group of
the household according to the source
of income of the head of the household.
For example, if the source of income of
the head of the household is cultivation,
then in the occupational classification
that household is considered to be
“cultivation household”. The occupation
of the household is closely related to
the earnings of the household as well
as the vulnerability of the household to
exogenous shocks, including any serious
disease/illness affecting any member of
the household.
The distribution of both HIV and non-
HIV households among the various
occupational groups is quite similar
as can be seen from Table 4.1. While
wage earners account for 44 percent in
both households, their contribution to
income is about 32 percent in non-HIV
households and about 35 percent in HIV
households. Agriculturalists account
for about nine percent of households
and the same percentage of income
in non-HIV households whereas they
account for eight percent of households
but only four percent of income in HIV
households. The self employed nonagriculturalists
and salaried form nearly
38 percent of the non-HIV households
with their contribution to income being
higher at 48 percent. This group, while
forming 39 percent of HIV households,
accounts for 45 percent of their income.
Households belonging to the category
of ‘others’ under non-HIV constitute
around 9 percent of the total number
while this figure is much higher at 19
percent for HIV households. While
agricultural wage labourers in the rural
sample and non-agricultural wage
earners in the urban sample form the
single highest percentage of households
among the non-HIV households, nonagricultural
wage earners account for
the highest percentage of households
in both rural and urban samples of HIV
households.
An attempt was made to draw the HIV
and non-HIV sample from similar
socio-economic backgrounds. In spite
of this, it can be seen that the average
income per household has turned out to
be higher for non-HIV households and
particularly so in the rural sample. The
rural sample in HIV households has only
2.25 percent of the households earning
an income above Rs. 84,001 while in
the non-HIV households, this sample
Impact of HIV Status on Income and Employment in India
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