The Data Team of The Hindu has been exploring inter-district differences in southern States through a series of Data Points. District-wise variations in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Telangana were discussed in the previous editions. This is the last story in the series which looks at the inter-district disparities in Andhra Pradesh.
While uneven progress existed in all States analysed, there was a common denominator. In all States, in general, the richer districts performed well in most socio-economic metrics while the poorer districts suffered. This understandable pattern was recorded across all the four States analysed till now. However, Andhra Pradesh did not conform to this trend.
In Andhra Pradesh, richer districts did not top most of the socio-economic parameters analysed. Interestingly, in most lists, they featured at the bottom or in the bottom half of the list.
Chart 1 | The chart shows the district-wise per-capita income at current prices for 2019-20 in ₹
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Krishna district, followed by Visakhapatnam, East Godavari and West Godavari were the richest, while Srikakulam, Kurnool, Vizianagaram and Anantapur were the poorest, with the rest of the districts placed in the middle.
Chart 2 | The chart shows the share of households that used clean fuel (electricity, LPG/natural gas, biogas) for cooking in 2019-21.
In middling districts such as YSR (Kadapa), Guntur and Prakasam, more than 90% of households used clean fuel, while in Visakhapatnam, only 73% did so. In East Godavari, only 80% of households did so.
Chart 3 | The chart shows the share of households with any usual member covered under a health insurance/financing scheme in 2019-21.
Less than 70% of households were covered among the rich districts of Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari and Krishna. In contrast, poor districts such as Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, Kurnool and Anantapur were at the top of the list.
Chart 4 | The chart shows the maternal mortality rate (MMR) in 2020-21.
The four richest districts were also the bottom four in the list as shown in the chart. West Godavari had the highest MMR of 111, followed by East Godavari (106), Visakhapatnam (102) and Krishna (86). SPSR Nellore had the lowest MMR of 32, followed by Kurnool (40).
Chart 5 | The chart shows the average out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure per child delivery in a public health facility (in rupees) in 2019-21.
With an average OOP of Rs. 8,159 spent on child delivery, East Godavari topped the list. Notably, less than half of that was spent in Guntur, which came second on the list. In SPSR Nellore, with an average OOP of Rs. 1,104, the expenditure was the least.
Chart 6 | The chart shows the number of beds available in government hospitals per lakh population.
West Godavari with only 52 beds per lakh population featured at the bottom of the list. Krishna district had 66 beds per lakh people, much lower than Chittoor (89) and Kurnool (80). Visakhapatnam, a rich district, topped the list with 109.9 beds per one lakh people.
Chart 7 | The chart shows the share of children under five years who were severely wasted (a child who is too thin for her height) in 2019-21.
In Visakhapatnam, more than 11% of children under five were severely wasted. On the other hand, in Prakasam and Anantapur, the share was less than 4%.
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Chart 8 | The chart shows the annual average dropout rates for secondary level (Classes IX-X) in 2020-21.
West Godavari had the highest dropout rate during this period, with 38.6% of students dropping out of secondary schools. Vizianagaram, one of the poorest districts in the State had the least school dropout rate (8.3%).
rebecca.varghese@thehindu.co.in
Source: National Family Health Survey-5, Statistical Abstract Andhra Pradesh 2021
Also read: Capital conundrum in Andhra Pradesh
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