The National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) released results of the Comprehensive Annual Modular Survey 2022-2023 a few weeks ago. The survey made many interesting findings. Some of the key findings could be listed as follows:
Primary school enrollments: Among persons of age group 6 to 10 years, about 90.5% in rural areas and 89.2% in urban areas are currently enrolled in primary education.
25% of rural children and 20% of urban children who never enrolled in school, did it because they were not interested in studies. Another major reason for non-enrollment was “parents not interested in sending them to school”.
Among persons aged 15-24 years, around 97.8% of males and 95.9% of females are able to read and write short simple statements in their everyday life with understanding and are also able to perform simple arithmetic calculations.
Secondary education: In urban areas, only 56.6% persons of age 25 years and above have some secondary education. Whereas, in rural areas, this ratio is much lower at 30.4%.
Only about one third of all graduates were science and technology graduates.
Financial inclusion: Around 94.6% of adults have an account individually or jointly in any bank/other financial institution or with mobile money service providers at all-India level. More adults in rural areas have bank accounts as compared to the urban areas.
Digital access and skills: About 94.2% of rural households and about 97.1% of urban households possess telephone and/or mobile phones. About 59.8% of people above the age of 15years have access to the internet.
Among persons aged 15-24 years, around 78.4% reported the execution skill of ‘sending messages (e.g., e-mail, messaging service, SMS) with attached files (e.g., documents, pictures, video)’. In the same age group, around 83.6% of males and 72.7% of females reported execution of the above skill.
About 38% of people were able to perform online banking transactions. (30% in rural areas and 40% in urban areas). Only 17% in rural areas and 37.7% female in urban areas were however able to make an online banking transaction.
Access to Transportation: Around 93.7%t of the urban population has convenient access to low-capacity public transport within 500 meters from the place of living.
About 94% of the rural population has access to an all-weather road within 2kms from the place of their residence.
Cost of healthcare: The average medical expenditure per household on hospitalization during a year is Rs 4,496 in rural areas and Rs 6,877 in urban areas whereas the average out-of-pocket monthly medical expenditure per household on non-hospitalization during is Rs 545 in rural areas and Rs621 in urban areas.
Out of the average medical expenditure, about 91% in rural areas and 76% in urban areas was borne by the households. This implies public healthcare services in rural areas are much worse as compared to the urban areas.
Clean cooking fuel: About 63% of households use clean cooking fuel. The proportion is much less in rural areas (49%) as compared to urban areas (93%).
Unemployment: Around one fourth of the youth in the 15-29 years age group reported to be not in education, employment, or training. The ratio was highest in rural females (over 46%).
Indebtedness: Around 18.3% of adults have some outstanding loan. Rural adults are more likely to have a loan than an urban male. Male indebtedness is much higher as compared to the female indebtedness.
