KANCHEEPURAM DISTRICT

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

DISTRICT HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT

KANCHEEPURAM DISTRICT

Introduction

� Kancheepuram district was initially known asChengalpattu district. It was bifurcated on18-11-1997 into Kancheepuram and Tiruvallurdistricts. Kancheepuram town, known as thecity of thousand temples, is the headquartersof the district.

� Kancheepuram is a unique district, with a longand glorious cultural and historicalbackground. It is known for its silk sarees andtraditional handloom-weaved fabrics. Beingclose to the growing metropolis of Chennai,the district is showing very impressive growthin the industrial and services sector.

� For administrative reasons, the district hasbeen divided into 4 revenue divisionscomprising of 11 taluks with 1,137 revenuevillages. For development reasons, it isdivided into 13 development blocks with 648Village Panchayats.

� The district has 24 town panchayats and 10municipalities.

� In the last decades, many villages andmunicipalities within the district have beensubsumed under the Greater ChennaiAgglomeration and are now a part of the fastexpanding Chennai city suburban areas.

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Geography

� The district is situated on the east coast ofTamil Nadu. It is bordered on the east by theBay of Bengal, by Vellore andThiruvannamalai Districts on the west, byChennai city and Tiruvallur district on thenorth and Villupuram district on the south.

� It lies between 11° 00' to 12° 00’ Northlatitudes and 77° 28' to 78° 50' Eastlongitudes. Situated at a distance of 76 kmfrom Chennai, the district is well connectedby road and rail.

� At present, Chengalpattu is the headquartersof the Chengalpattu taluk of theKancheepuram district and is 55kmsouthwest of the State capital, Chennai onthe National Highway 45. The district has atotal geographical area of 4433 sq. km andcoastline of 87.2 km.

� Palar is the main river and is not perennial.Cheyyar and Vegavathy rivers are tributariesof Palar and join it at Thirumakkudal.

Topography

� The major part of the area is characterisedby topography with innumerable depressions,which are used as irrigation tanks.

� Three beach terraces ranging in elevationbetween 4 mark the coastal tract and 12 mwith broad inter-terrace depressions.

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� The coastal plain displays a fairly low level orgently rolling surface and only slightlyelevated.

� The straight trend of the coastline is a resultof development of a vast alluvial plain. Thereare a number of sand dunes in the coastaltract. The coastal landforms include estuarinetidal, mud flats or lagoons salt marsh.

Soil Condition

� The soil is generally low in nitrogen andpotassium and high in phosphorus. The statusof micronutrients is critical and deficiency inzinc, iron and copper is noticed in manyvillages.

� There are different kinds of soil conditions -Red Soil in Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram,U t h i r a m e r u r , T h i r u k a l u k u n d r a m ,Maduranthakam, Cheyyur, Brown Soil inChengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Uthiramerur,Thirukalukundram, Maduranthakam,Cheyyur.

� Mixed Soil is found in Chengalpattu,Cheyyur, Kancheepuram, Black Soil inChengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Uthiramerur,Thirukalukundram,Maduranthakam, Cheyyurand Alluvial Soil in Kancheepuram,Chengalpattu and Cheyyur.

Climate

� Kancheepuram district enjoys a tropicalclimate, hot and humid most of the period of

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the year. It benefits both from the south-westand north-east monsoons; however, the majorrainfall is during the north-east monsoonseason from October end to December.

Status of Human Development

� The top five blocks in human developmentIndex in the district are: St. Thomas Mount(0.752) Kattankolathur (0.682) Kundrathur(0.654) Sriperumbudur (0.630) andThiruporur (0.572).

� The bottom five blocks in the district are :Acharapakkam (0.375) Madurantakam(0.387) Uthiramerur (0.393) Wallajabad(0.415) and Lathur (0.477).

� There are wide variations in HDI across the13 blocks in the district.

� The overall HDI reveals that seven out of 13blocks have HDI values higher than 0.50,while the other six blocks have HDI valueslower than 0.50.

� Even though, for historical reasons, theblocks at the bottom are industriallybackward, that is not the justification for themto perform low on delivery of health servicesas well as education.

� The GII value ranges from 0 to I, the higherthe value, the more inequality it shows. Thetop five blocks that have lower genderinequality are: Lathur (0.006) Chithamour

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(0.012), Sriperumbudur (0.024) Madurantakam(0.032) and Kundrathur (0.38).

� The bottom five blocks with higher genderinequality are Kancheepuram (0.082). St.Thomas Mount (0.077). Thirukalukundram(0.072), Uthiramerur (0.069) and Kattankolathur(.057).

� It is interesting to note that Lathur scores verywell on gender empowerment. It has thelowest GII (O.006) because, the femaleworker participation rate in Lathur block ishigh and the representation of women inRural Local Bodies is also comparativelyhigher.

� The female worker participation rate for non– agricultural sector is high in backwardblocks. Lathur had the lowest MMR for theyear 2013-14.

� Chithamour and Lathur blocks had lowgender inequality for the main reason thatthere is high degree of political participationof women at the Panchayat level.

� It is encouraging to note that in 9 out of 13blocks, the CDI value is more than 0.500.Thetop 5 blocks in CDI in the district are 1.Sriperumbudur (0.801) 2. Kundrathur (0.723)3. St. Thomas Mount (0.664) 4. Thiruporur(0.626) and 5. Kattankolathur (0.610).

� The bottom 5 blocks in CDI in the district are:Wallajabad (0.349). Uthiramerur (0.368).

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Lathur (0.380). Maduranthakam (0.416) andKancheepuram (0.518).The top 5 blocks inCDI are also the top 5 blocks in HDI.

� The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) iscalculated on the basis of indicators reflectingthe dimensions of health, education and livingstandard.The top five blocks, where themultidimensional poverty is low areSt. Thomas Mount (0.278) Kancheepuram(0.316). Kundrathur (0.356) Kattankulathur(0.402) and Thiruporur (0. 434).

� The bottom five blocks where themultidimensional poverty is high areWalajabad (0.767) Acharapakkam (0.711)Madurantakam (0.660) Thirukalukundram(0.639) and Chithamour (0.597).

Employment Income and Poverty

� Inadequate opportunity for gainfulemployment leads to lowering of incomelevels, consequently driving the people intopoverty.

� The Total workers in Kancheepuram districtincreased from 11.33 lakh in 2001 to 18.32lakh in 2011. That means an increase ofnearly 7 lakh.

� The Work Participation Rate of the districtincreased from 39.79 percent in 2001 to 41.86percent in 2011.

� The main workers increased from 9.14 lakhin 2001 to 14.77 lakh in 2011.

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� Across the blocks, Madurantakam,Kancheepuram, Wallajabad, St. ThomasMount and Acharapakkam witnessed a largeincrease in marginal workers during 2001 to2011.

� The non – workers increased from 17.44 lakhin 2001 to 21.66 lakh in 2011.

� The rural WPR in the district in 2011 (46.46)was higher than that of the urban WPR(39.22) during that year.

� The female WPR in 2011 was 24.81 and it isless than half of the male WPR (58.69) duringthe same year.

� The data relating to sectoral composition ofworkers reveals that ‘’household industriesand other workers” account for the bulk ofemployment. There has been an increase inthis segment from 75.4% in 2001 to 85.8% in2011.

� In the case of primary sector, the proportionof workers employed declined from 24.7%in 2001 to 14.2% in 2011.

� There was decline in the percentage ofcultivators as well as agricultural labourersduring 2001 and 2011. Possible reduction incultivable lands influenced by land conversionto real estate business, failure of monsooncan be attributed for the change.

� Migrants, both intra – State and inter – Statemay have contributed to the increase inworking population.

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� According to the land use pattern,Kancheepuram district has a higher land usefor non –agricultural purpose; only 28% ofthe land is utilized for agriculture. ThePercentage of barren and uncultivable landis minimal at 3% while fallow lands (currentand other) are around 24%.

� Child labour has come down inKancheepuram district owing to theimplementation of many programmes by theGovernment (e.g., The National Child LabourProject (NCLP) was started by the UnionMinistry of labour and Employment with theultimate aim of completely eradicating thepractice of child labour).

� Child Labour Protection Committee wasformed in the district with the Project Director(District Rural Development Authority) asSecretary. During 2006-7, 586 children weremainstreamed. But the number came downto 122 in 2013-14.

� It is encouraging to note that at present 425children are enrolled in NCLP’s SpecialTraining Centres in Kancheepuram district.

� Trade unions, more number of NGOs,employers and the civil society may beinvolved in addressing this issue.

� For those registered with District Employmentoffice, the percentage of placements is verylow in the district. During the period 2007 to2014, the average percentage of placementis 2.58 only.

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� The per capita income of the district has beenconsistently higher than that of the Stateduring the period 2008-09 to 2011-12. In2011-12, the per capita income of the districtwas Rs.92713, whereas the per capitaincome of the State in that year was Rs. 63996.

� The MGNREGA is a pioneering employmentguarantee scheme in independent India. Ason March 2013, 67.4% of households inKancheepuram were registered under thisprogramme. Nearly four lakh persons wereemployed under this scheme in the district.

� Larger Participation of women in MGNREGAprogramme in the district is noteworthy.

� In Kancheepuram district, in 2012-13, 43percent of BPL households were there.Thedistrict planning, in future, should focus onthe blocks with higher percentage of BPLhouseholds.

� Public distribution system of food grainsthrough ration shops with the provision ofration cards assumes importance from foodsecurity dimension. By 2013-14, 6,57,764households were provided with family cardsin the eight taluks of Kancheepuram district.

Demography, Health and Nutrition

� Population and Demographic Transition:According to 2011 Census, the urbanpopulation of Kancheepuram districtconstituted 63.41% and rural population was36.5%.

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� The population of the district registered agrowth of 39 percent during 2001 and 2011.

� Kundrathur, Thiruporur and St. ThomasMount blocks registered a growth of 77.8%46.4% and 62.3% respectively in the lastdecade. To understand this phenomenon, wemay have to factor in in-migration of workersfrom other districts of the State as well as theother States.

� Acharapakkam and Lathur blocksexperienced negative trend (-10.1 and -10.5respectively). This may be attributed to out-migration from the blocks.

� The population density of the districtincreased from 668 in 2001 to 892 in 2011. Itis higher than that of the State, whichincreased from 480 in 2001 to 555 in 2011.

� The Crude Birth Rate of the district was 16.3and it was higher than that of the State (15.9)

� The Crude Death Rate of the district was 3.5and it was almost half of the State average(7.4).

� The Sex Ratio of the district in 2011 was 986and it is lower than that of the State (996)during the same year.

� The Child Sex Ratio of the district which was961 in 2001 increased to 967 in 2011.

� The life expectancy at birth in the district(73.8) during 2013-14 was slightly higher thanthat of the State (73.4).

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� The Infant Mortality Rate of the district (10) ishalf of the IMR of the state (21) during 2013-14.Of all the blocks, Chithamour had thelowest IMR (2) during 2013-14.

� Acharapakkam with IMR 16, Lathur (18),Mathuranthakum (18) and Wallajabad (18)and Kancheepuram (15) are backward in thecase of sex ratio as well as child sex ratio. Inrecent years, attempts have been made toenhance the care of new born to control theneonatal infant mortality through home basedcare.

� The maternal mortality rate shows widevariations across the blocks.The MMR of thedistrict during 2013-14 was 79 It is higherthan the State MMR of 68 in that year.

� While the MMR of Chithamour (9) and Lathur(10) blocks is very low, the MMR ofKundrathur (104). St. Thomas Mount (110)and Uthiramerur (140) blocks is very high.

� The analysis of institutional deliveries revealsthat the district has made tremendousprogress in increasing the proportion ofinstitutional deliveries.

� The district witnessed 100% institutionaldeliveries during 2013-14. Majority of thedeliveries took place in Government Hospital(660), and Primary Health centre (492) andonly 148 deliveries took place in privatehospitals during 2013-14.

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� Still Birth Rate (SBR) is one of the indicatorsof maternal health as well as delivery ofhealthcare services, especially since it relatesto appropriate medical interventions thatensure the birth of the infants. The SBR ofKancheepuram district increased from 9.2 in2012-13 to 11.8 in 2013-14.

� Kancheepuram district attained theimmunization rate of 99.2% and that is a goodsign.

� Under the Integrated Child DevelopmentScheme (ICDS), the children are givenadequate nutrition at Anganwadi Centre(AWC). The ICDS scheme monitors thegrowth and development of children. TheICDS has made an impact on reducing theproportion of moderately and severelyundernourished children.

� In 2013, 89.07% of children below 5 yearswho were weighed in the Anganwadis werenormal and only 10.93% of children wereunder - weight.

� Across the blocks, in 2013, Sriperumbudurhad the highest percentage (96%) of normalchildren and Chithamour had the lowestpercentage (78%) of normal children.

� The percentage of malnourished children inthe district came down from 11% in 2013 to5% in 2013.

� The district has sizable proportion of migrantpopulation. There is need for bringing the

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children of the migrants under the ICDSscheme.

� During 2012, 94% women and 92%adolescent girls took IFA tablets inKancheepuram district. The blockadministration should give more attention toAcharapakkam and Sriperumbudur blocks indistributing IFA tablets to pregnant womenand adolescent girls.

� At present, there are 2351 AnganwadiCentres (AWCs) in Kancheepuram districtand around 1.59 lakh children in the agegroup between 6 months and 3 years arebeing looked after under the ICDS.

� Safe drinking water and sanitation representimportant components of health.

� In Kancheepuram district, 86% of habitationsare provided with safe drinking water.

� During 2013-14, in Kancheepuram district,48% of households have toilet facilities. InAcharapakkam and Chithamour blocks, only25% and 29% of households has toilet facilityrespectively.

� Efforts are being made in the district toconstruct community sanitary complexes,separate toilets in schools for girls, andsubsidies for toilet construction inhouseholds.

� The total number of HIV positive persons in2013 -14 in the district were 1470.

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� It is important to note that Tambaramsanatorium in St. Thomas Mount block is anestablished medical centre for HIV as wellas TB.

� It is heartening to note that the poor and themarginalized are able to access hospital /healthcare.

� There was only marginal decrease in TBcases by 2% during 2007 and 2013. Thenumber of identified cases decreased from2426 in 2007 to 2213 in 2013.

� The highest number of TB cases were foundin St. Thomas Mount (205) followed byKancheepuram (187).

Literacy and Education

� The literacy rate of Kancheepuram districtincreased from 76.85% in 2001 to 84.49% in2011.

� Gender wise, the male and the female literacyrate was 89.89% and 79.02% respectively.

� During 2001 to 2011, the gender gap inliteracy declined. In 2001, the male andfemale literacy rate was 84.73% and 68.79%respectively.

� Blocks like Kattankolathur, St. ThomasMount, and Kundrathur which are fasturbanizing have registered higher literacyrates from 85% to 90%.

� The district administration has to focus on lowperforming blocks, namely Acharapakkam,

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Uthiramerur, Chithamour and Lathur. Theseblocks show an average literacy rate of about70%. These blocks need careful planningand implementation strategy.

� Elementary education has received greaterboost since the initiation of Sarva SikshaAbhiyan (SSA), which has worked on amission mode towards the goal of 100%enrolment in primary schools.

� The district has been performing well in thefield of primary education.

� The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for bothboys and girls was above 100% during 2012-13 and 2013-14.

� There are marginal variations in GER atprimary level, across the blocks and amongthe boys and girls.

� The completion rate (CR) has consistentlyremained above 99% in the district in almostall blocks at primary level.

� The dropout rate at primary level is minimaland compares favorably with that of the Stateand of the country.

� The Gross Enrolment Rate at upper primaryor Middle school education in almost allblocks in the district was above 100% in thedistrict during 2012-13.

� The completion rate at upper primary level inthe district during 2013 was 94.12.

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� There is not much difference in thecompletion rate during 2013-14, betweenboys and girls. For boys, it was 93.63 and forgirls, it was 94.61.

� The dropout rate during 2013-14 in the districtat upper primary level was only 1.08. Forboys, it was 0.92 and for girls, it was 1.24.

� The district achieved 99.60 percent transitionrate from primary to upper primary level by2012-13. There was not much difference inthe transition rate between boys and girls.

� The same trend (97.97) was noticed in thetransition rate from upper primary tosecondary level. There was not muchdifference between boys and girls in thisregard.

� During 2013-14, for 4099 habitations in thedistrict, there were 1365primary schools,1070 upper primary schools.

� It is important to note that the total number ofprimary and upper primary schools in thedistrict increased from 1347 in 2012-13 to2183 in 2013-14.

� There is adequate number of teachers in bothprimary and upper primary schools with apupil Teacher Ratio of 24:1 each in 2013 –14.

� The district and block – wise data indicatesatisfactory position in pupil - teacher ratio inthe schools in conformity with SSA norms.

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� The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) at thesecondary level shows a declining trend. TheGER for the district during 2013-14 was87.58. There is not much difference in theGER of boys and girls for the district as awhole. There are wide variations in GERacross blocks in district at secondary levelduring 2013-14.

� While Kattankolathur (103.50), St. ThomasMount (99.78) and Kundrathur (97.02) havehigh GER during 2013 – 14. Chittamour(63.00) Madhuranthakam (58.56)Uthiramerur (66.63) and wallajabad (68.58)have low GER during the year.

� The dropout rate at secondary level forKancheepuram district during 2013-14 was2.5. For boys, it was 2.3 and for girls, it was2.7.

� During 2013-14, there were 259 high schoolsand 256 higher secondary schools in thedistrict.

� School infrastructure with respect to drinkingwater and sanitation, particularly separatetoilets for girls improved considerably in thelast few years with 100% schools having thefacility.

� A large number of schools (1034) had nocompound walls as per 2013 -14 data. Allthe schools in the district had either threeclassrooms or more than three classrooms.

� There are 47 student hostels for SC/STstudents in the district. There are separate

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hostels for girls studying in high schools andhigher secondary schools.

� There is a hostel for college girls inKancheepuram and a hostel for college boysin Chengalpattu.

� There are 11 Arts and Science Colleges, 85Engineering colleges and 23 polytechnics inKancheepuram district.

� It may be noted that most of the Engineeringcolleges and Polytechnics are Self - financinginstitutions.

� As Kancheepuram represents a uniqueindustrial ecology, the industrial growth mustbe leveraged to create education – workecosystem that enhances and links education,employability and skill development of itspopulation.

Gender

� An important aspect of empowerment ofwomen is access and control over resources.

� The Government of Tamil Nadu has beenimplementing Mahalir Thittam since 1990.The main objective of the scheme is toalleviate poverty among rural households byproviding them access to credit and resourcesand it helps in the formation of Self – HelpGroups (SHGS).

� During 2010-11, there were 3190 SHGs inthe district with a membership of 44338 andthe amount of loan availed was Rs. 1941.45

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lakh. But, we find that the number of SHGsdeclined during 2011-12 to 1188 and themembership also declined to 16254 and theamount of credit availed was Rs. 767.20 lakh.There is need for analyzing the reasons forthe steep decline in the number of SHGS andmembership during the year.

� The position, however improved during 2013-14. In 2013-14, the number of SHGsincreased to 2722; the membership alsoincreased to 34663 and credit availed alsoincreased to Rs. 1465.42 lakh.

� The female work participation rate inKancheepuram district in 2011 was 24.8.

� Female work participation rate in non –agricultural sector was 47.10 in 2011.

� During 2012-13, female daily wage rateranged from Rs. 120 to Rs. 150 across theblocks. It was the lowest in Kanchepuram(Rs. 120). followed by St. Thomas mount(Rs.130) and Thiruporur (Rs. 140). In all otherblocks, it was Rs. 150/- per day.

� In Kancheepuram district, the share of electedrepresentatives in Rural Local Bodies andUrban local Bodies was 36.71%. However,their actual participation in the decision -making is rather limited.

Social Security

� Demographic profile of the Aged; the shareof the aged in the district was 9.1% according

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to 2011 Census. The gender compositionshows that 49% of them were men and 51%of them were female. And the elderly femalepopulation is on the rise. It may lead to‘feminization of poverty’.

� The triple burden of ageing, gender andpoverty of women needs to be addressed withclear policy, planning and administrativeaction. Of course, there is need for providingsocial security to the aged irrespective ofgender.

� In Kancheepuram district, about 1.34 lakhelderly persons received financial assistancefrom different schemes implemented by theGovernment in 2013 -14.

� The District Differently-abled Welfare Boardat Chengalpattu is the nodal office fordistributing the benefits under variousschemes related to the differently-abled.

� For a large district with 13 blocks and growingpopulation, the reach is rather minimal andthat is a matter for concern. The WelfareBoard must proactively link with NGOs andother agencies associated with the welfareof the differently-abled.

Infrastructure

� The infrastructure situation of the districtpresents many redeeming features as wellas challenges.

� The district has access to 241 km of NationalHighways, 2171 km of State Highways, 568km

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road length of Municipality and Corporationroads, and 3206 km of Panchayat unionroads. The district has 1247 km. of Townshiproads and about 11 km. of Forest roads.

� The improvement of rural roads underNational Bank for Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (NABARD) was initiated in2012-13 in Kancheepuram district.

� The district is well connected by Railways andAir.

� In the district, 100% households are coveredwith electricity connection in all blocks.

� There are 323 telephone exchanges andmore than 8 lakh land lines in the district.

� During 2013-14, there were 378 CommercialBank branches and 260 Co-operativesocieties. Indian Bank is the lead Bank forKancheepuram district.

� During 2013-14, Life Insurance Corporationwith three branches issued 19843 policies.

� The Kancheepuram district has goodtransport facilities with a number of busroutes.

� Kancheepuram district was chosen forRs. 5000 crore greenfield airport atSriperumbudur. This is a key future area ofgrowth. It will be a huge boost forinfrastructure development of allied facilitieslike cargo, freight, hospitality, hotels androads.

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� As rural population in Kancheepuram districtconstitutes one fifth of the total population inthe district, there is a need for developmentof rural infrastructure along with urbaninfrastructure as the district is a fasturbanizing zone.

Conclusion

� With population increase and rapidurbanization of the district, districtadministration should take steps to improveinfrastructure and public utilities like safedrinking water, sanitation, road / street lightelectrification, widening of roads, bettersewage and drainage facilities.

� The key message is planned urbanization ofthe industrialized blocks viz., Kundrathur,Kattankolathur and Sriperumbudur.

� Inter – sectoral Linkages and Convergenceas an Overarching Strategy.

� There is a clear inter - sectoral linkagebetween education and employment, incomeand socio-economic status.

� There is need for opening new and qualityvocational and technical training institutes inthe district, in close proximity, to the industrialparks and hubs.

� Skill development programmes in PPP modemay be initiated with the help of industrialassociations like CII and FICCI.

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� There is a strong inter - sectoral linkagebetween public health, nutrition, health andsanitation as well as provision of infrastructurein rural and urban areas. The Nirmal BharatAbhiyan as well as Tamil Nadu VillageHabitation improvement (THAI) can beutilized for maximum effect in the district.

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