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National Health Profile 2018
Socio-Economic Indicators
Summary
Socio-economic indicators provide a background for understanding the health scenario of a country. This
section provides data on education, gender, poverty, housing, amenities, employment and other economic
indicators. These indicators for the country and for the States will help in identifying the linkages between socio-
economic indicators and achievement of health goals.
According to 2011 Census, the overall literacy rate of India is 73%. At the time of Independence the
country’s literacy rate was abysmally low, 14%. Over the years literacy rate has been increasing but
with varied rates in different states with some states like Kerala (94%) and Mizoram (91.3%) are well
above the national average while states like Bihar has a dismal rate of 61.8%. There is also a concern
for female literacy rate (64.6%) which is much below the male literacy rate (80.9%). There is a strong
need to improve the overall literacy rate as improved literacy rate has an impact on increasing a
country’s economic growth rate and decreasing population growth rate. Also as India has a very
young population, literacy will play a very important role in turning the young population into
potential human capital. (Table 2.1.1).
At the national level, the mean age at effective marriage for female in the year 2016 is 22.2 years and
varies from 21.7 years in rural areas to 23.1 years in urban areas. Among the bigger States/UTs, the
mean age varies from 21.2 years in West Bengal to 24.7 years in Jammu & Kashmir. Table (2.2.1)
Before 2005, the official measure of poverty line was based primarily on food security. It was defined
as the per capita expenditure needed for a person to consume enough calories and be able to pay for
associated essentials to survive. Since 2005, the Government adopted Tendulkar methodology which
moved away from calorie anchor to a basket of goods. Using the Tendulkar methodology, NITI Aayog
estimates that during the year 2011-12, 25.7% of population in rural areas and 13.7% in urban areas
live below the poverty line (Table 2.2.2).
The second advance estimates for Per Capita Net National Income for the year 2017-18, at current
prices is Rs. 112764 crore and Rs. 86689 crore at constant price (base year 2011-12) (Table 2.3.2).
Safe drinking water is essential for good health. As on 01.04.2017, 13,25,302 habitations were
provided with safe drinking water under National Rural Drinking Water Programme (Table 2.5.3).
As on 01.04.2017, The habitations identified as affected from flouride and arsenic were 13,492 and
18,258 respectively in the country (Table 2.5.4(a) and Table 2.5.4(b) ).