Half of urban residents depend on pension, rent

A whopping 52.81 per cent of the population in urban areas in the State depend on pension, rent or interest on deposits for their monthly income.

According to the state-level details of the Centre-sponsored Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) -2011 released in Bengaluru, 23.03 per cent of the 2.17 crore people living in urban pockets have no income at all (the number includes minors).

The census conducted by the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department also reveals that 14.05 lakh people in urban areas get their monthly income by working at construction sites.

The other classifications include domestic work (1.72 pc of the urban population), street vendor (0.48 pc), household work (2.27 pc) shop workers/assistant (2.59 pc), electrician, mechanics (1.17 pc) and  other works (6.51 pc)As many as 7,772  people enumerated stated that their monthly source of income was by begging and 4,987 said by picking rags. The survey had separate questionnaires for rural and urban pockets.

Rural front

On the rural front, the survey revealed that as many as 55.6 lakh of the total 80.4 lakh households had a monthly income of less than Rs 5,000. As many as 17.9 lakh households have monthly income between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 and only 6.9 lakh households income above Rs 10,000 per month.

As many as 7.3 lakh households in rural areas or 9.16 per cent paid income tax or professional tax in rural areas. Only 7.9 lakh households in rural pockets depended on salaried jobs. (3.09 lakh government jobs, 89,053 public sector and 3.9 lakh private sector).

In 35.9 lakh households cultivation was the main source of income followed by manual casual labour (26.14 lakh), part/full time domestic work (2.3 lakh), foraging, rag picking (1.01 lakh), non-agricultural own account (1.5 lakh) and begging (9,650).

No caste details

However, actual caste details have not been disclosed in census. Siddaramaiah said the caste details, which were collected during the survey, have not been disclosed on the instruction of the Centre. Karnataka becomes the second state after Assam to come out with the statistics. Separate questionnaires were prepared for rural and urban areas.

This survey is different from another socio-economic and educational survey popularly known as the caste census conducted by the Karnataka Backward Classes Commission earlier this year.

Siddaramaiah said the government will disclose the caste details in the census conducted by the commission once the compilation is completed. Caste details will throw up the reality of the socio-economic status of communities in the State, he added.