Contents Title Page Foreword Preface Acknowledgement i List of Boxes iii List of Figures iv List of Tables v Chapters 1 Thanjavur District —A Profile 1 2 Status of Human Development in Thanjavur district 15 3 Employment, Income and Poverty 41 4 Demography, Health and Nutrition 55 5 Literacy and Education 80 6 Gender 105 7 Social Security 114 8 Infrastructure 123 9 Summary and Way Forward 138 Annexures 147 Technical Notes 161 Abbreviations 168 Refrence 172 THANJAVUR DISTRICT HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2017 District Administration, Thanjavur and State Planning Commission, Tamil Nadu in association with Annamalai University Contents Title Page Foreword Preface Acknowledgement i List of Boxes iii List of Figures iv List of Tables v Chapters 1 Thanjavur District —A Profile 1 2 Status of Human Development in Thanjavur district 15 3 Employment, Income and Poverty 41 4 Demography, Health and Nutrition 55 5 Literacy and Education 80 6 Gender 105 7 Social Security 114 8 Infrastructure 123 9 Summary and Way Forward 138 Annexures 147 Technical Notes 161 Abbreviations 168 Refrence 172 Dr. N. SUBBAIYAN, I.A.S. Collector's Office District Collector Thanjavur - 607 001 Ph: 04362-230102 Fax: 04362-230857 23.07.2015 PREFACE UNDP has been supporting the preparation of Human Development Reports at various levels in the country. These Reports are important as they serve to focus on global, national and regional issues from a human development lens. Human development in India is not merely restricted to reporting at the national level but is characterized by State and district level human development analysis driven by State and local governments. The attempt to ―operationalize‖ human development is another distinctive feature of human development. The emphasis on linking planning to human development reporting is unique and this ensures that the human development reports do not merely remain books on the shelf but are actually integrated into planning processes of the government at a decentralized level. This document provides a broad framework covering human development, gender development, child development and multi-dimensional aspect of poverty. On the basis of selected indicators, indices were worked out to assess the levels of development and causes for backwardness. Certain aspects to be kept in mind while using this document. They are: (i) indices have been worked out with equal weightages, which may not portray the real picture. (ii) there is no rural and urban classification in the analysis; and two municipalities and one municipal corporation in the district has been grouped into the concerned rural blocks. High level of heterogeneity among eleven exclusively rural blocks and three rural cum urban blocks may give distorted results. These issues may be taken into account for the preparation of DHDR at the next level and evolving policies for achieving sustainable development in the district. The present DHDR is to a large extent successful in inviting proper diagnosis of the matter and adequate policy prescription for amelioration of the same. It also identifies common development priorities of the districts on different aspects related to human development. Although, it is realised that indicators computed for different points of time facilitate catching up of cumulative achievement over time and understanding of inter temporal changes but due to paucity of numerical information we have been constrained in doing so. The important role played by time series indicators with regular periodicity relating to people‘s well-being in chalking out effective planning and policy formulation cannot be ruled out. There should be a continuous process for computation of the indicators at regular interval. For this purpose all-round efforts are to be made for building up a sound and strong database at disaggregate levels. I am happy that I could associate myself with the UNDP-SPC sponsored project of preparation the District Human Development Report. The present DHDR has been prepared in association with the Annamalai University. It has turned out to be a very successful joint endeavor of an academic institution Annamalai University and the District Administration. This report portrays the various facets of district development from the human development perspective highlighting the positive Government intervention to achieve a faster and sustainable human development. N. SUBBAIYAN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In recent decades much attention has been laid on grass roots programmes aiming at human development. The State Planning Commission with the cooperation of the UNDP is utilizing the services of the academia, scholars and policy makers to study analyse and prepare reports on human development of different districts. The task of preparing Thanjavur District Human Development Report has been assigned to Annamalai University by the State Planning Commission in collaboration with the District Administration. The District level core committee was constituted with the District Collector as the Chairman and myself Dr. E. Selvarajan, Professor, Department of Economics, Annamalai University as the Coordinator. This report has evolved as the result of the support and encouragement of numerous people and it is a pleasant task to express my thanks to all those who have associated with this project and contributed in many ways for developing this project through various stages. First and foremost, I place on record my sincere thanks to Tmt. Santha Sheela Nair, IAS (Retd),Former Vice Chairman, State Planning Commission, Government of Tamil Nadu for her concrete suggestions which helped in shaping the report. I am extremely thankful to Thiru M. Balaji, IAS, the then Member Secretary, State Planning Commission who initiated this exercise and also my thanks is due to Dr. Sugato Dutt, IFS, former Member Secretary i/c, State Planning Commission and Thiru Anil Meshram, IAS, Member Secretary, State Planning Commission for providing all necessary administrative support. I owe a deep sense of gratitude to Dr.S.Manian, Vice Chancellor, Annamalai University, Thiru Shiv Das Meena, IAS, Principal Secretary to the Government Tamil Nadu and former Administrator of Annamalai University; Dr. K. Arumugam, Registrar i/c, Dr. J. Vasanthakumar, Registrar i/c, Dr. N. Panchanatham, former Registrar, Annamalai University; Mr. Dinesh Oliver Ponraj, DRO I, Annamalai University and Mr. T. Christuraj, DRO II, Annamalai University for their constant encouragement and unstinting cooperation. I express my thanks to Thiru P. Selvarajan, Head of Division, Rural Development, State Planning Commission; Thiru K. Kumaresan, Head of Division, Education and Employment, State Planning Commission; and Selvi. S. Namagiri, Senior District Planning Officer, State Planning Commission, whose encouragement, and support from the preliminary to the concluding level enabled me complete this task. I thank Dr. G. N. Krupa, Planning Officer, State Planning Commission for providing critical inputs which helped me in enriching the report. I sincerely acknowledge Thiru Dr. N. Subbaiyan, IAS, Collector, Thanjavur District Thiru K. Baskaran, IAS, former District Collector, Thanjavur for their constant encouragement and periodical reviews. My special thanks go to Thiru R. Chellakkannu, District Planning Officer, Thanjavur, and Tmt T. Manimegalai, Assistant, Thanjavur and this work would not have been possible without their continued support. I take this opportunity to thank Dr. S. Nagini, Director, Research and Development, Annamalai University, Thiru S. Ravichandran, Assistant Registrar (Grants), Thiru M. Ramanathan, Superintendent (Grants) and Thiru VR. Murugappan, Deemed Superintendent (Grants), Annamalai University for their administrative support. i I am grateful to Dr. N. Ramagopal, Head of the Department of Economics, Annamalai University, for his interest in the preparation of this report. I thank him for his valuable suggestions and constant encouragement. The preparation of the DHDR was possible owing to the untiring efforts of the study team that gathered good deal of qualitative and quantitative information. I am thankful to my fellow study team members Dr. I. Ravi, Professor of Economics, Dr. A. Pradhip Babu, and Dr. C. Subburaman, Assistant Professors in Economics, Annamalai University for spending their precious time with me travelling the length and breadth of the district to take part in several stakeholders meet and focus group discussions and providing critical inputs. It is my pleasure to acknowledge the help rendered by the Block Development Officers (BDOs), the elected representatives of the district, SHG members, and Municipal Commissioners. Besides, the various heads of department at the district level provided invaluable assistance. Specifically Project Director ,DRDA; Superintendent Engineer, TNEB; Joint Director, Health & Family Welfare; Joint Director, Agriculture; Deputy Director, Health Services; Chief Educational Officer; Chief Educational Officer (SSA), Project Officer, Mahalir Thittam; Executive Engineer, (Urban), TWAD; Executive Engineer, (RWS), TWAD, Deputy Director; Statistics; Special Deputy Collector, SSS, Thanjavur; District Elementary Educational Officer; District Social Welfare Officer; Project Officer, ICDS; Labour Officer; Manager, Lead Bank; Manager, NABARD; All Executive Officers of Town Panchayats; all Block Medical Officers; and others who have also co-ordinated with us in executing the work. I express my deep sense of gratitude to Dr. R. Elango, former Dean, Faculty of Arts and