54,000 households in Odisha live on begging

A whopping 54,000 households in Odisha live on begging while a staggering 88.88 per cent of the households in the State have a monthly earning of less than Rs 5,000.Over 54 per cent households in rural areas do not have houses or land while 34.89 per cent of the total population is illiterate and a meagre 2.79 per cent are graduates or above, if the First Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC)-2011 released recently in New Delhi is any indication.

Similarly, 65.36 per cent households do not possess telephones, refrigerators or vehicles while 64.97 per cent live in kuccha houses, the report says.

Notably, the survey, conducted in 640 districts in the country, included Odisha's 86 lakh households in 51,000 villages and 12.62 lakh households in 107 urban areas across its 30 districts. According to the report, 15.05 lakh households in the rural areas are from Scheduled Castes while 20.62 lakh are from Scheduled Sub-Castes and 49.41 lakh are from other castes. Nearly 63,000 families do not belong to any particular caste or community.

As many as 83.33 lakh households own houses while 1.56 lakh stay in rented houses. Of these, 56 lakh households live in kuccha houses and only 30.14 lakh in pucca houses, the report says, adding that 19.89 lakh households depend on cultivation for their livelihood while 50.73 lakh work as casual labourers.

Only 5.86 lakh households have salaried jobs. Out of them, 3.79 lakh are in Government service, 1.64 lakh in the private sector and 43,178 are in the public sector.

While 1.34 lakh households have non-agricultural own account enterprise, 54,199 earn their livelihood from begging/charity/alms collection and 4.10 lakh households have a monthly income above Rs 10,000.

Only 2.2 lakh pay income tax, it says.Of the total population in the State, 34.89 per cent are illiterates and 2.79 per cent have completed graduation or above.

A total of 39.61 lakh households own land while 46.61 lakh households or 54 per cent have no land in rural areas.Under the assets ownership (rural) category, 4.16 lakh households own refrigerators and 32,837 households have landline telephones.

While 28.94 lakh households in rural areas use mobile phones, 59,000 have both mobile and landline phones.Besides, 7.63 lakh households in rural areas own motorised two/three/four-wheelers or motorised fishing boat requiring registration while 56.36 lakh or 65.36 per cent households do not own any modern gadgets.The State's 75,59,843 households have male heads of families while 10,61,481 are headed by women.