MADURAI DISTRICT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY DISTRICT HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT MADURAI DISTRICT Introduction Madurai District is situated in the Southern most part of Tamil Nadu State. Madurai district is the second largest in populous district of the state of Tamil Nadu. The city of Madurai serves as the district headquarters and houses the world famous Sri Meenakshi temple and is situated on the banks of river Vaigai. Geography Madurai district was bifurcated into Madurai and Theni districts in 1996 and retained Madurai as its head quarters. The district lies between 77000" and 78030" of the eastern longitude and between 9030" and 10030" of the northern latitude. It has an area of 3741.73 Sq. Km and is bounded on the west by Theni district, on the north by Dindigul district, on the east by Sivagangai district and on the south by Virudhunagar district. The district has got 2 revenue divisions, 6 municipalities, 11 blocks and 7 taluks respectively. The district is endowed with a semi arid tropical climate with normal rainfall 1 of 827.1 mm as against 923.1 mm for the state. Topography The prominent geomorphic units in the district are structural and denudated land forms such as structural and denudational hills, residual wells, linear ridges, uplands and barred pediments. The district is predominantly by crystalline formations and alluvium is found along the courses of the river. Ground water occurs under phreatic conditions in weathered residuum and interconnected shallow fractures and under semi-confined to confined conditions in deeper fractures. The depth of weathering varies from 20-25m bgl in Usilampatti, Sedapatti and Kottampatti area, while it varies from 30 to 40 m bgl in remaining parts of the district. Soil Condition: The district is characterised by Red soil, Black clayey soil and alluvial soil. Red soil is found in all the blocks of the district while black clayey soil is found in Tirumangalam, Usilampatti and Peraiyur blocks of the district and alluvial soil is found along the courses of the river. The predominant soil type is red soil. This type of soil is found common in Madurai, 2 Melur, Thirumangalam, Usilampatti and Vadipatti blocks with a combination of red soil and black soil. The soil type in central Madurai is predominantly clay loam, while red loam and black cotton types are widely prevalent in the outer fringes of the city. The land in and around Madurai is utilized largely for agricultural activity, which is fostered by the Periyar Dam. Madurai lies in the southeast of the Western Ghats, and the surrounding region occupies the plains of South India and contains several mountain spurs. Climate Rainfall is irregular and intermittent, with an average of approximately 85 cm per annum. The wind blows from Northeast direction during January–February, and from Southwest direction during May to July. Madurai is hot and dry for eight months of the year. The hottest months are from March to July. The city experiences a moderate climate from August to October, tempered by heavy rain and thundershowers, and a cool climate from November to February. Fog and dew are rare, occurring only during the winter season. Being equidistant from mountains and the sea, it experiences similar monsoon pattern 3 with North east monsoon and Southwest monsoon with the former providing more rain during October to December. Temperatures during summer generally reach a maximum of 40°C and a minimum of 26.3 °C, although temperatures up to 42°C are not uncommon. Winter temperatures range between 29.6 °C and 18 °C. A study based on the data available with the Indian Meteorological Department on Madurai over a period of 62 years indicate a rising trend in atmospheric temperature over Madurai city, attributed to urbanization, growth of vehicles and industrial activity. The maximum temperature of 42 °C for the decade of 2001 – 2010 was recorded in 2004 and in 2010. Human Development Status The HDI has been computed for 14 blocks in the district. As per the 11 indicators given, the HDI value varies from 0.30 to 0.97 among the blocks. Corporation, as it is urban in characteristics took the top position while Kottampati was placed at the bottom. Kottampatti, T.Kallupati and Alanganallur ranks very low in Human development index. Standard of living, Health and Education parameters needs to be improved in these blocks. 4 GII helps to measure and compare the stages of gender development. The GII ranges from 0.06 to 0.19. As far as Health, Empowerment and Labor were considered among the 14 blocks, Madurai West ranked first among the top 3 blocks. The other blocks which were better in GII were T.Kallupatti, T.Vadipatti and Corporation. The major concern was that high MMR existed in GII more blocks such as Alanganallur, Kallikudi, Thirumangalam and Sedapatti. Child Development Index (CDI) is an index combining performance measures specific to child–education, health and nutrition. In the district, Corporation, Madurai West and T.Vadipatti with urban characteristics obtained the first three positions in Child development index. CDI performance was found to be low in Chellampatti(0.37), Kottampatti(0.41) and Sedapatti(0.45), lacking in terms of health and education. There was large disparity among the blocks where the value ranges from 0.91 to 0.37. The Multidimensional Poverty Index(MPI) was a new measure designed to capture the severe deprivation that people face at the same time. 5 Thirupurankundram Corporation and Thirumangalam show better performance in terms of MPI. Kottampatti which is backward in two indices such as HDI and MPI is in worse situation. Employment, Income and Poverty Increased urbanization in Madurai which was earlier an agriculture and rural based district has caused a shift from the primary to the secondary sector and the tertiary sector. Textile, construction, real estate and housing and increasingly services sector was increasing and close to State average. The per capita income of Madurai had shown a growth rate average of 10.09 percent between 2005 and 2012. The Per capita income of Madurai district was Rs. 67258 at constant prices in 2011-12 which is higher than the State per capita income of Rs. 63996 at constant price. Growth in employment in primary sector was negative in recent years while in the secondary and the tertiary sector, growth was positive and relatively high. As far as WPR was considered, there was an increase in total workers of the district due to the increasing trend of urbanisation, but in rural areas in certain blocks, female WPR was reduced. The income originated from manufacturing sector had increased from 160700 lakhs to 276121 lakhs from 2005 to 2012. 6 But the other subgroup electricity and water supply showed a negative growth while the construction sector showed an increasing trend from 91777 lakh to 163572 lakh. The blocks like Alanganallur, Kallikudi, Kottampatti, Sedapatti, T.Kallupatti and T.Vadipati with larger proportion of social groups had a high incidence of poverty. They were rural based and agriculture based blocks. Cucumber, cotton and pulse growers were more in the Kallikudi, T.Kallupatti block where feasibility of marketing have to be ensured and regulated markets need to be activated effectively to benefit the marginal farmers. The range of poverty among the blocks is from 19.58 percent to 42.50 percent. Totally 408484 ration cards are provided in the district, among which Kallikudi holds the higher number of family cards and least is in Usilampatti where 25531 cards have been issued. Demography, Health and Nutrition There was an increase in population in all the blocks and the decadal population growth rate of the district was 17.84% in 2011. The decadal growth rate among the blocks showed that there was higher growth rate in Madurai west, followed by Thirupurankundram which was recently included within the 7 corporation limit. This increase in growth rate may be due to employment opportunities and urban context prevailing in the particular block. As per the census 2011, the district has the total population of 3,038,252. The decadal population growth of the district is 17.84., however, population growth rate in rural/ urban context clearly exhibits the current trend in urbanization in the district. In urban area, the growth rate was 27.88 which was more than the rural area - 5.06. The crude birth rate had decreased in Madurai district when compared to 17.1 percent of 2010, to 15.3 in 2014. In these three years, around 8 blocks maintained the same birth rate of 15 to 17.6, but fewer blocks like Corporation, T.Kallupatti, Kottampatti and Kallikudi have reduced their birth rate with lower percentage of variation. There was a slight increase in CDR in 6 blocks of the district where concrete efforts were taken by the district administration and health department to bring down the death rate of the blocks. The sex ratio for Madurai had increased from 978 in 2001 to 990 in 2011. Although the overall sex ratio had increased by 12 points in the district (978 in 2001 to 990 in 2011), child sex ratio increased only by 6 points (926 to 932). 8 Overall life expectancy for male (65.4) and female (68.9) has increased from 2001 to 2014 for the district. However, the life expectancy at birth of Madurai district was low when compared with the state. IMR rate at district level was 20.81 in 2011 and in 2013-14 it had reduced to 16.13. There was a significant reduction in IMR in the year 2013-14 when compared to 2010 in all the blocks especially Melur (23.4 to 17.34), Thirumangalam (33.8 to 23.36), Usilampatti (30.6 to 18.93).