Spatial and Social Inequalities in Human Development: India in the ...

25002000Table 13 Average MPCE for social groups at current prices :Non Million plus cities and Towns150010005001993-942004-052009-100ST Hindu SC HinduOtherHinduMuslimOtherReligionsAll IndiaThe percentage of Muslims to total population in urban areas is slightly higher than that in ruralareas. This is due to historical factors, the seat of governance during the Mughal period beingthe large cities of today. The growth of population among Muslims (also Sikhs) is higher thanthe national growth rate in recent decades, particularly in rural areas, but that has to beunderstood and explained in terms of their socio-economic characteristics rather than religiousidentities. Further, there has been a decline in their growth rate during the nineties (theinformation for the decade 2001-11 are yet to be released), compared to the previous decade.Rural-Urban migration for both Muslims and Sikhs has declined as inferred from their decliningshare in urban population.Economic wellbeing of population, in different social categories in rural areas, towns and metro(million plus population) cities, has been measured using the large sample data on consumptionexpenditure from NSS over the period from 1993-94 to 2009-10 at the constant prices of 1987-88. It is seen that the ST Hindus are at the bottom of the ladder in rural areas, followed by SC(Table 10 and Graph 10) at all the three time points. In urban areas, however, STs are better offthan both SCs and Muslims (Table 10 and Graphs 11 and 12). This can be attributed to the factthat the STs do not move out of rural areas due to economic distress or seasonality, owing totheir strong socio-cultural bonds and consequently their rate of out migration is low. Theymigrate out mostly induced by governmental schemes and programmes and therefore recordthe maximum relative gain through their movement. The ratio of urban to rural figure for theST is similar to the average figure in 1993-94 and is the highest among all social groups in 2009-10. This can be attributed to their very high growth in consumption expenditure in urban areas,particularly in metro cities, during 1993-2009, partly due to the low figure in the base year. Thegrowth in consumption in rural areas is about the same across communities except for the ORGwhich recorded a significantly higher growth rate than the others.SC Hindus record marginally higher consumption expenditure than the STs in rural areas but inurban areas, it is the other way round. The annual compound growth in consumption for theSCs during 1993-2009 (1 per cent per annum) is marginally higher than that of STs but is at par30