The Socio-Economic and Caste Census-2011 has put a hole in the claims of Kerala’s prosperity as the top earner in 70.49 per cent families in the rural sector gets less than Rs 5,000 a month.
Kerala, however, retains the top slot in literacy rate with 88.62 per cent, followed by Delhi (86.42). Rajasthan has the lowest rate of literacy (52.15) against the national average of 64.27 per cent.
The census, released on Friday, said Kerala has a total of 76,68,176 households of which 62,89,649 are in the rural areas. Of them, only 14.01 per cent households have salaried jobs.
The main source of income for 50.25 per cent households is manual or casual labour; Only 10.25 per centage depend on cultivation.
However, 60.88 per cent rural households have mobile phones while 30.51 per cent have a two/three/four wheelers. Members in 4,12,889 households pay income/professional tax.
As many as 94 per cent of 59,12,399 households in the rural areas own a house. Of this, 4,08,464 are single room homes, 19,13,807 two-rooms 20,80,626 three rooms and 18,68,262 more than three rooms. Only 4.56 per cent live in rented houses. As much as 28 per cent of the rural households own land.
