Levels of Literacy, Employment and Socio-Economic Development among the Rural Beggar Population: A Case Study

 

Dr. Jabir Hasan Khan, Dr. Menka, Shamshad.

 

Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202002

Department of Geography, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202002

Research Scholar,

Department of Geography, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202002

ABSTRACT:

The present study is an attempt to analyse the spatial patterns of rural beggars’ literacy, employment, variations in level of socio-economic status, and the relationship between their rate of literacy and employment (dependent variables) with selected variables of socio-economic development in rural areas of Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh. The study is based on primary source of data, collected through the field survey in the Aligarh district carried out during 2009. Stratified Random Sampling has been used for the selection of villages. Six per cent villages (i.e. 70 villages) were selected out of the 1180 inhabited villages and for the selection of households, 25 per cent beggars’ households were randomly selected from each selected village of the district. Altogether, 496 beggars’ households were selected for the present study from the 70 villages of the district.  The regional analysis of the study reveals that the eastern and south-eastern blocks of the district experienced the medium and high level of literacy rate among the rural beggar population. More or less similar pattern is also observed regarding the rural beggars’’ employment that eastern parts of the district recorded medium or high level of employment rate in comparison to western parts. However, any definite regular spatial pattern in terms of socio-economic development has not been observed in the district.

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Begging has been a traditional profession in India because charity is considered one of the noblest of human virtues according to Hindu tradition.¹ Beggars used to request for food, money, clothing and other items from passersby. They have many reasons for asking for assistance. Beggars can be found in many locations worldwide and they tend to present a negative image of a particular location. The presence of beggars is perceived to be indicative of larger social ills or issues and can cause others to avoid beggar-inhabited areas.² Nevertheless, the problem of begging is a universal phenomenon; it is not peculiar to any part of the country. It is a worldwide phenomenon and more pronounced in third-world countries. In India, the beggar is called as ‘Bhikari’ (person who is living on mercy and charity of the people and running his livelihood by asking the people). They are also known as the panhandlers, vagrants, etc. Underprivileged, deprived, underclass, unfortunates, marginalised, etc. is all the relevant synonymous words related with these people. These words bring all the images of despondences, misery and wretchedness in the public mind.

According to Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia defines “Begging is a practice whereby a person obtains money, food, shelter or other things from people they encounter by request. It is also referred to as sponging, spanging (short for spare changing) or (in American English) panhandling.”³ Stark (2002) commented that “panhandling is generally engaged in when other economic resources… have been exhausted. Earnings are rarely saved. They are spent on short-term purchases, generally alcohol or drugs, occasionally food.”⁴ Mukharjee (1945) pointed out that “Beggary is a symptom of social disorganisation”. He examined that the major factors making for its prevalence are to be found in the breakdown of the socio-economic structure of the country.⁵

 

Moorthy (1945) has mentioned that individual charity and State aid played a great part in caring for the destitute and concluded that beggars now depend almost wholly on indiscriminate charity which encourages thousands to join the legion of paupers and destitute.⁶ Thakker et al. (2007) conducted study socio-demographic variables and assessed the psychiatric morbidity and distress among the inmates of 'Beggar Home'. ⁷ Gillin (1929) examined that how socio-economic conditions result the beggary and vagrancy. He also highlighted the main causes which give rise to begging, including economic and social disorganisation due to changes in the economic order or political instability, breakdown of agriculture, religious ideals and practices, the crusades, migrations decay of feudalism, a plague of famine.⁸

 

The development is an outcome of the efforts made for the eradication of poverty and unemployment and regional inequalities.⁹ Development is the state of change from a given situation of a region to become better one within a given period of time.¹⁰ The development of a region can be identified with an increase in the employment opportunities, availability of infrastructural facilities, amenities and services, proper distribution of resources, increase in production, and investment in consumption and so on. Thus, the development refers to an improvement of all the sectors of economic, social and cultural pursuits.¹¹ Therefore, Special attention has to be given to provide basic civic amenities and facilities to the dwellers of slum and squatter settlements, or the population of such settlements, under special drives, may be shifted in new colonies having standard housing, adequate water supply, sanitation, electricity, etc. Moreover, it is also a need of the hour that such provisions have to be made that the benefits of urban development programmes may be percolated up to the lowest stratum of the society, surely, it will help in reducing the vertical inequalities in term of housing conditions in the urban areas of the country.¹²

 

 

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The present study has been undertaken with the following specific objectives:

   i.     to analyse the regional variations of literacy rate among rural beggars in the Aligarh district.

 ii.     to examine the regional variations of employment of the rural beggars in the district.

iii.     to inspect the geographical disparities in the levels of socio-economic development among the twelve blocks of the Aligarh district.

iv.     to find out the relationship among the literacy and employment of the rural beggars (dependent variables) with the selected variables of socio-economic development in the study area.

 

STUDY AREA:

Aligarh district, a medium sized district, is spreading over an area of 3700.4 square kilometers in the Western part of Uttar Pradesh. It occupies the north-western part of the Uttar Pradesh which is fertile region of Ganga and Yamuna Doab. In the world map the geographical location of this district is in North-Eastern Hemisphere and lying between the parallels of 27^o29' and 28^o11' north latitudes and meridians of 77^o29' and 78^o38' east longitudes. Its boundary touches the boundaries of five other districts (Bulandshahr, Badaun, Mathura, Hathras and Etah) of the Uttar Pradesh and one state (Haryana) of India. At present, the district is divided into five tahsils namely, Koil, Khair, Gabhana, Atrauli and Iglas for the purpose of land record keeping, land revenue collection, judicial administration, etc. These tahsils are further sub-divided into 12 development blocks namely: Atrauli, Gangiri, Bijauli, Jawan, Chandus, Khair, Tappal, Dhanipur, Lodha, Akrabad, Iglas and Gonda.

 

According to 2001 Census, the district accommodates a residential population of 29, 92, 286 of which 29 per cent was classified as urban and 71 per cent as rural.¹³ The general density of population in the district was 820 persons per sq. km. However, it was 607 persons per sq. km. in the rural sector and 5,949 persons per sq. km. in the urban sector. The general sex ratio that is the number of females per thousand males was 862 in the district, whereas, the figures for the rural and urban areas were 856 and 876 respectively. The literacy rate in the district is 58.5 per cent and the male literacy rate is 71.7 per cent and females are 43.0 per cent literate while, the percentage of literacy in rural and urban population was 56.5 and 63.2 respectively.

 

According to the Census of India there were 7,50,307 beggars and vagrants in India in 1981, which declined to 5,42,875 in 1991, though it further increased to 6,27,688 in 2001. Out of the total beggars, about two third beggars

were in rural areas while one-third in urban areas. The matter of begging is not the ignorable issue of the society, but in fact, the begging has become one of the most problematic social issues of India. It is, therefore, necessary that empirical studies have to be undertaken aimed at collecting relevant data on the subject.

 

DATABASE AND METHODOLOGY:

This study is based on primary source of data that has been collected by the researcher through field survey in the Aligarh district carried out during 2009. The villages have been selected on the basis of stratified random sampling technique. According to 2001 Census, the district had 1210 revenue villages of which 1180 were inhabited. The inhabited villages were stratified into three categories based on the size of population, so that, all types of population and villages may get reasonable representation in the samples randomly drawn for the survey. Keeping in view the constraints of time and cost, it was decided to collect data for this enquiry from 6 per cent villages of each category. For the selection of households, 25 per cent beggars’ households were randomly selected from each selected villages of the district. Altogether, 496 beggars’ households were surveyed for the present study. 

 

In the present analysis, a set of seventeen indicators of socio-economic development have been taken into account to determine the levels of socio-economic development at one hand and  literacy rate and employment rate on the other hand in the twelve blocks of the district. These indicators fall into five categories like population characteristics, literacy, employment, income and household infrastructural facilities. In the first step, the raw data for each variable which determines the areal variations of literacy rate and employment rate, and levels of socio-economic development have been computed into standard score. It is generally known as Z value or Z-score. The score quantify the departure of individual observations, expressed in a comparable form. This means it becomes a linear transformation of the original data.¹⁴ It may be expressed as:

Where: Z_ij = Standardised value of the variable i in block j,

X_ij = Actual value of variable i in block j,

X_i = Mean value of variable i in all blocks,

σ_i = Standard deviation of variable i in all blocks.

 

In the second step, the Z-scores of all variables have been added block wise and the average has taken out for these variables which may be called as composite score (CS) for each block and may be algebraically expressed as:

Where: CS stands composite score,

∑Z_ij indicates Z-scores of all variables i in district j,

N refers to the number of variables.

 

The positive values relating to the districts’ Z-score explain high level, while, negative values indicate the low level of literacy rate and employment rate of the rural beggars, and their levels of socio-economic development in the study area. The correlation co-efficient is worked out among dependent variables (literacy and employment) and independent variables (selected variables of socio-economic development) and student  t-test technique is applied to find out the determinants which are significant at 1 per cent and 5 per cent levels.

 

The correlation co-efficient has been computed on the basis of the Karl Pearson’s correlation co-efficient (r) method which is as follows:

 

Where:r is the co-efficient of correlation,

X, y are the two given variables,

n is the number of observation.

 

To find out the computed ‘t’ value, student t-test technique is used which is given below:

 

Where: t is the calculated value of ‘t’ in the test of significance,

r is the computed value of co-efficient of correlation,

n is the number of observation.

 

Besides, advanced statistical techniques, GIS-Arc view programme (Version 3.2a) has been applied to show the spatial variations of literacy and employment of the rural beggar population and their levels of socio-economic development among the blocks of the Aligarh district through maps.

 

 

 

 

 

Regional Analysis of the Rural Beggars’ Literacy and Employment:

The development of human resource depends mainly on literacy or levels of education. As the education prepares the man to actively participate in economic activities and social welfare programmes of the country, thus, literacy and socio-economic development are interrelated, interdependent with each other. The Table 1 reveals that there is a large regional variation in the levels of rural literacy rate among the rural beggars in the district. The level of rural literacy varies from lowest -0.77 score in the Jawan block to the highest 0.89 score in the Akrabad block of the district. The entire range of variations may be categorised into three grades such as high (above 0.28 score), medium (0.28 to -0.28 score) and low (below -0.28 score).

 

Table 2 depicts that only three blocks of the district experienced the high level (above 0.28 score) of literacy rate among the rural beggars, in which, the blocks of Dhanipur and Akrabad make a small region in the south-eastern part, whereas, Gonda block fails to share the boundary with the neighboring blocks in the district. Five blocks with the z-score values of 0.28 to - 0.28 belong to the medium level of literacy rate, wherein, Atrauli, Bijauli and Gangiri blocks constitute a remarkable region in the north-eastern part but two blocks Chandaus and Iglas are scattered in the district. The Figure 2 reveals that four blocks of the district lie under the low level (below -0.28 score) of literacy which form a contiguous interconnect region in the central part and western part of the district, comprising the blocks of Lodha, Khair, Tappal and Jawan. Thus, analysis of the Figure 2 exhibits that the literacy rate among the beggars decreases from the south and south-eastern parts towards the north and north-western parts in the rural areas of the district of Aligarh.

 

The spatial pattern of the rural employment rate among the rural beggars population is shown in the Figure 3. Their level of rural employment rate varies from the lowest -1.46 score in the Tappal block to the highest 1.56 score in the Gonda block of the district. This entire range of variation of rural employment rate may be categorised into three grades such as high (above 0.48 score), medium (0.48 to -0.48 score) and low (below -0.48 score) (Table 1).

 

The Table 2 shows that three blocks (Akrabad, Gonda and Atrauli) of the district have high employment rate among the beggars in the rural areas of the district and all these blocks do not form any distinct region rather than they are widely scattered in the study area. Six blocks experienced medium level of rural employment rate they are Chandaus, Jawan, Lodha, Dhanipur, Bijauli and Gangiri and all these blocks constitute an interconnected extensive region central and eastern part of the district. Remaining three blocks (Tappal, Khair and Gonda) of the district have the low level of rural employment rate in which two make a small region in the north-western part of the district while rest one block does not form any region. Geographical Analysis of the Figure 3 illustrates that similar to the literacy rate among the rural beggars, the rural employment rate among the beggars also decreases from the eastern parts towards the western parts in the study area.

 

Levels of Socio-Economic Development:

The level of socio-economic development is the aggregate output of the attainment of the various selected socio-economic indicators of development. Socio-economic development of an area can be measured with the help of several indicators but beggars are the persons who are considered as poorest of the poor and do not have so much facilities available within their households, therefore, some selected indicators has been chosen to measure the levels of socio-economic development like demographic, literacy, employment, per capita income and household facilities.

 

The foregoing discussions about levels of literacy and employment of the rural beggars indicate that there may be regional variations in the level of development of different sectors among the blocks of Aligarh district. Since, some blocks are developed in one or two sectors but they experienced backwardness in some other sectors and vice-versa.

 

The level of socio-economic development among the beggars in the rural parts of the district varies from -0.83 score in the Tappal block to 0.62 score in the Gonda block of the district (Table 1). The Table 2 and Figure 4 depict that four blocks have high level (above 0.20 score) of socio-economic development, two of them (Akrabad and Gangiri) make a small region in the south-eastern part of the district but remaining two blocks (Chandaus and Gonda) do not share the boundary with adjacent blocks to form any region. Four blocks with the z-score of 0.20 to -0.20 experienced the medium level of socio-economic development and three of them (Jawan, Lodha, and Dhanipur) form an identifiable region in the central part of the district and Bijauli block does not form any region. Four blocks of the district, namely, Tappal, Khair, Iglas and Atrauli fall under the low level (below -0.20 score) of socio-economic development, out of which, Tappal and Khair blocks make a small region in the western part of

the district while the blocks Iglas and Atrauli are scattered in the study unit.

 

 

Table 1: Block-Wise Distribution of Z-score of Literacy and Employment of Rural Beggars, and Level of Socio-Economic Development in Aligarh District, 2009

Source: Calculation is based on Sample Survey by Researcher.

Note:  LR₁= High Level of Literacy Rate, LR₂= Medium Level of Literacy Rate, LR₃= Low Level of Literacy Rate, ER₁= High Level of Employment Rate, ER₂= Medium Level of Employment Rate, ER₃= Low Level of Employment Rate, SED₁= High Level of Socio-Economic Development, SED₂= Medium Level of Socio-Economic Development and SED₃= Low Level of Socio-Economic Development

 

Table 2: Levels of Literacy, Employment and Socio-Economic Development among the Rural Beggar Population in Aligarh District, 2009

Source: Based on Table 1.  

 

 

 

Relationship of Literacy and Employment with Level of Socio-Economic Development

The relationship between rural literacy rate of the beggars and their socio-economic development in the twelve blocks of the Aligarh district is shown in Figure 5 and it shows that only three blocks of the district fall under the high grade (above 0.28 z-score) of rural literacy rate, out of them, two blocks (Gonda and Akrabad) also have high level of socio-economic development but one block (Dhanipur) witnessed the low level of socio-economic development.

 

The five blocks experienced the medium level (0.28 to -0.28 z-score) of literacy rate, in which, the blocks of Chandaus and Gangiri witnessed high level of socio-economic development, Bijauli block has medium level of development and blocks of Atrauli and Iglas recorded low level of socio-economic development in the district. In the

low category (below -0.28 z-score) of rural literacy rate, there are four blocks, out of which, two blocks (Tappal and Khair) also fall under low level of socio-economic development which make a small region in the north-western part of the district, while, two blocks (Lodha and Jawan) having medium level of socio-economic development, form a distinct region in the central part of the study area.

 

The spatial distribution of rural employment rate and levels of socio-economic development among the rural beggars population is shown in Figure 6 exhibits that only three blocks of the district fall under the high grade (above 0.48 z-score) of rural employment rate, out of which, the blocks of Gonda and Akrabad also have high level of socio-economic development while Atrauli block has low level of socio-economic development. The six blocks witnessed medium level (0.48 to -0.48 z-score) of employment rate, in which, two blocks (Chandaus and Gangiri) of the district have high level of socio-economic development.

 

The four blocks i.e. Jawan, Lodha, Dhanipur and Bijauli experienced the medium level of socio-economic development, in which, three blocks (Jawan, Lodha and Dhanipur) form an identifiable region in the central part of the district. Three blocks namely Tappal, Khair and Iglas having the low grade of (below -0.48 z-score) rural employment rate, experienced low level of socio-economic development, in which, two blocks (Tappal and Khair) form a small region in the north-western part of the district.

 

Correlation of Literacy and Employment with the selected Variables of Socio-Economic Development:

The analysis of simple correlation of literacy and employment of the rural beggar population (dependent variables) with selected socio-economic development indicators (independent variables) has been listed in Table 3. The correlation between literacy rate of the rural beggars and indicators of socio-economic development shows that out of seventeen independent indicators, the coefficient of correlation of only one indicator (X₁₇= electricity facility) has a higher level of significant relationship with the literacy rate of the beggars which is also positively correlated with the literacy rate and significant at the confidence level of 95 per cent.

 

Table 3 also depicts the result of correlation between employment rate and selected indicators of socio-economic development among the rural beggar population which exhibits that among the seventeen independent indicators, the coefficient of correlation of only four indicators (X₉= male literacy rate and X₁₀= female literacy rate, X₉= male employment rate and X₁₀= female employment rate) has a higher level of significant relationship with the employment rate and all these indicators are positively correlated with employment rate at 99 per cent the confidence level.

 

Instead of one star and double star indicators, other indicators of socio-economic development are also correlated with the literacy and employment rate among the rural beggar population but not up to a significant level.

 

CONCLUSION:

The overall analysis of the study reveals that patterns of literacy rate, employment rate of the beggars and their socio-economic development, and their relationship clearly depict that there is less range of variations regarding the relationship regarding among these variables in the study area. The regional analysis of the literacy rate reveals that the majority of the blocks of the district experienced medium and high level of literacy rate among the rural beggars and these blocks are concentrated in the eastern and southern parts of the district of Aligarh while western parts of the study area witnessed the low level of literacy of the beggars in rural areas of the district. Similarly, an analysis of the employment rate also exhibits that most of the eastern blocks have the medium and high level of employment rate in comparison to the blocks lying in western parts central part of the district

 

As far as, the level of socio-economic development in the district is concerned, it is found that the central part of the district fall under the medium level of socio-economic development, and, the high level of socio-economic development is observed in the south-eastern part, whereas, the western part experienced the  low level of socio-economic development.

 

The association between literacy rate of rural beggars and their level of socio-economic development depicts there is the medium and low grade of relationship between them in the blocks of the district, though, high level of relationship is only experienced in the southern and north-western parts of the district. Though, the relationship of employment rate and socio-economic development shows that about seventy five percent blocks of the district of Aligarh are perfectly positive correlated with each other but twenty five per cent blocks of the district do not follow the same pattern with each other in this regard.  Therefore, it may be inferred from the t-test analysis that the regional variations in the level of rural employment of the beggars in the study area have been mainly determined by four indicators of development i.e. male literacy rate, female literacy rate, male employment rate and female employment rate are the main positive determinants for the employment rate among the rural beggars in the district of Aligarh.

 

Thus, the rural areas of the district may be developed by promoting the agro, agro-allied and ancillary industries as animal husbandry, poultry, fisheries, horticulture, floriculture, dairy, piggery, apiculture, silviculture, sericulture etc., on the other hand, there should be an efficient implementation and diffusion of all the social and welfare schemes of rural development, launched by the Government of India for poverty alleviation, employment generation, development of educational and health infrastructure, basic amenities and facilities, etc. Surely, these measures will bring a light of hope for socio-economic development of this marginalised population (beggars) in the rural areas of the Aligarh district (Khan, Shamshad and Hassan, 2011).

 

 

Table 3: Results of Correlation (r) of Literacy and Employment of the Rural Beggars with Selected Indicators of Socio-Economic Development in Aligarh District, 2009

Source: Calculation is based on Sample Survey by Researcher.

* Significance at 1 per cent level, ** Significance at 5 per cent level

 

 

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