LIVING STANDARD OF PEOPLE

IN VELLORE

PROJECT REPORT

Submitted by

Nikhil Bhardwaj- 17BCE2071

Sumit Ingale-17BEC0923
Abhishek Bhardwaj-17BEE0027
Varun Muppalla- 17BIT0001
Archit Dongre- 17BEE0186
Aadish Kala- 17BIT0375

Introduction to Innovative Projects

PROJECT SUPERVISOR
Professor Uma Mahendra Kumar K

MARCH 2019
VIT VELLORE 632014
Abstract
Our project work “Living standard of People in Vellore” is aimed to understand the current
situation of way of life. The project is of the people, for the people and by the people. To build a
better India the heart of the country and its people must be happy. We must be able to increase
the lifestyle of the persons to make the difference.

• Standard of living refers to the level of wealth, comfort, material goods and necessities
available to a certain socioeconomic class in a certain geographic area. The standard of
living includes factors such as income, quality and availability of employment, class
disparity, poverty rate, quality and affordability of housing, etc.

• Standard of living is geneeasured by standards such as real (i.e. inflation adjusted) income
per person and poverty rate. Other measures such as access and quality of health care,
income growth inequality, and educational standards are also used.

• The idea of a 'standard' may be contrasted with the quality of life, which takes into
account not only the material standard of living, but also other more intangible aspects
that make up human life, such as leisure, safety, cultural resources, social life,
physical health, environmental quality issues, etc.

• The standard of living is often used to compare geographic areas, such as the standard of
living in the United States versus India, etc.

One measure of standard of living is the United Nations' Human Development Index
(HDI), which scores 188 different countries based on factors including life expectancy at
birth, education and income per capita.

All the questionnaire as well as their report along with detailed analysis has been provided as
part of this report.
Methodology

The aim of our project was to find out the living standard of people in vellore and suggest the ways
to improve it. Therefore, we have utilised the medium of a comprehensive survey to find out the
needful. The first step was to identify the broad set of issues that we could focus on. We did that by
means of small interviews of local peoples. We made sure that even our initial step was as broad as
possible so as to eliminate any sort of bias that could have crept into the system.

The next step was to analyse the answers given in preliminary interviews and lay foundation of the
primary survey. Next we all sat together to prepare final draft of the questionnaire to be
incorporated in the final survey. In this step we again made sure that all the questions were relevant
to the current generation. We also made sure that all the questions were very inclusive and bias free.

Next, we used Google Forms to prepare final survey. Online method for delivery of survey and
also analysis of data was chosen to make the whole process user friendly. Using online also had
tremendous impact on number of people that answered our questions.
Once the survey reached required audience we analysed it in real time to eliminate ambiguities.
The final step was to write a short as well as detailed analysis of all the data collected. Again,
everything was done very carefully to make sure that all bias can be eliminated.
We then prepared final project report.
INFRENCES FROM QUESTIONS:

Inference 1:
We found that there are 46.2% of families in which there are more than 1 earning member
which shows how adults suffer to run the family I mean they all want to provide maximum
facilities they can.

Inference 2:
We found that women are also working to provide maximum utilities to their family they can
and also states that the view of society is also changed towards women ,now there is nothing
odd in working for women

Inference 3:
We choose this question to find how many members earn in the family, our intention was to
check whether there was any child who supports in family income. We found that in 46.2%
of families have more than one earning member.

Inference 4:
We found that there is large no of families in which there is more than one earning member
but still the average family income of more than 50%families is less than 10000. This shows
that there wages are very low.
Inferences:
This shows that there are about 30% people living in joint families but there wages are not good
in order to support their family .as in a joint family there are also old members who are unable to
earn they need support from others .

But also there are some families in which old members also earning members. This shows how
they are dedicated towards their family, how keenly they wanted a good life to their family and
also for themselves.

This also shows that there are a large number of families which migrated from village in order to
search for work, in order to provide better education to their children, in order to have better
health facilities in comparison to village.

This also shows that some people have to live alone without their family in order to earn .to
support, to have a better life for them. But instead they get a very low wage for their work.
Inferences:
This shows that 72.8% people don’t have a health insurance which shows that they are not
aware of benefits of the health insurance ,also they are not ready to face any emergency or any
accident if occurs.

Or in other way we can also say that they don’t find utilization of money in spending it
for health insurance.

No one plans to get sick or hurt, but most people need medical care at some point. Health
insurance covers these costs and offers many other important benefits. Health insurance protects
you from unexpected, high medical costs. You pay less for covered in-network health care, even
before you meet your deductible.
These essential health benefits include at least the following items and services:

1. Outpatient care—the kind you get without being admitted to a hospital

2. Trips to the emergency room

3. Treatment in the hospital for inpatient care

4. Care before and after your baby is born

5. Mental health and substance use disorder services: This includes behavioral
health treatment, counciling, and psychotherapy

6. Your prescription drugs

Inference:
This shows that about 70% people says that its hard to find a job in their town.

Government has made many scheme to provide employment to each and every person then also
people find the difficulty in finding a job In their town.
Most of them are not aware of many schemes that are released by the government such as:

Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP)

This Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) scheme is controlled by

Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Govt. of India.
This scheme is started by Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC), Govt. of India as
single nodal agency at National Level. At State Level, the Scheme is to be implemented by State
Khadi & Village Industries Boards (KVIBs) in rural areas and by District Industries Centres
(DICs) in Urban areas.
 Objectives of these types of schemes are :
• To generate continuous and sustainable employment opportunities in Rural and Urban areas of
the country
• To provide continuous and sustainable employment to a large segment of traditional and
prospective artisans, rural and urban unemployed youth in the country through setting up
of micro enterprises.
• To facilitate participation of financial institutions for higher credit flow to micro sector.

Being the breadwinner and the sole financial provider at that, is not a choice especially in these
hard and trying times. The unstable job market, changes in family structure with more and more
single-parent households, and the practicality of having one parent stay home and care for
children are all factors in being a single-income household. the burden if you are a sole
breadwinner, what with a queue of financial obligations like paying all sorts of utility bills,
buying the family’s daily needs, fulfilling major payouts like mortgage and children’s school
fees, not to mention shelling out some good dollars for unplanned expenses when sickness,
injury or disability occurs.

The income earner then is someone who has the single responsibility and full duty to work for
the family and does not have an option to leave the workforce at any time in the future. The
stress and unusual demand of being the sole breadwinner, especially when one takes on multiple
jobs to provide adequately, has serious negative effects manifested outside of work.
Inferences:
This shows that more than 50% of families have theit family income less than 10000.still
working day and night they are not able to earn more than 10000. This shows the importance
of education, an educated person can very easily(compared to uneducated) earn more money.
If there family income is less than 10000 then how they can provide Education proper health
facilities they want for their family.
Some of them even don’t know the minimum wage per day for any work than is 137rupees or
about 4100 per month if there are 2 members in the family then atleast 8200 should be the
family income, but there are 46.2% families in which there are more than one earning member ,
but 20.2% of families having family income less than 6000.
This also shows the lack of awareness about government policies and also that instead of
availability of internet they are not aware about such schemes. If they are enough educated
they can earn much more and also they can have a better life.
Here too, there’s a vast gap in the earning in the earning capacity of the family. Most of the
small families have to unfortunately depend on single earning members. With “production for
home” moving out of households, and shifting to “production for others” now done in factories,
there emerged a distinction between home and work and women and men roles. During this
time, women bore the traditional domestic responsibility while the men were relegated the
special responsibility of being the “breadwinner,” bringing home the bread from the income he
received from producing goods outside the home. It was this “special responsibility” of being the
breadwinner that associated men in this role.

Money views can be a complicated thing. There are varying opinions about it, and that includes the
concept of the breadwinner role when it shifts from the conventional father role and responsibility.
But one thing is certain. Being an average American, that is, hovering around middle to low
income brackets and being the sole breadwinner is tough in these hard and trying times. The stress
and unusual demand of being the sole breadwinner, especially when one takes on multiple jobs to
provide adequately, has serious negative effects manifested outside of work.

Living in an atmosphere where money worries is a consistent issue and especially hearing
arguments about money have negative effects on children’s sense of security and how they
view money.

Parents’ financial stress negatively impacts their children. Studies show that children do feel and
carry with them the strain, even if the parents are discreet in talking about the situation. In
a research, parents that experienced financial strain were less connected to their children, which
can affect the kid’s school performance and relationships with others. They were also less likely
to engage in positive social behaviors like helping others and volunteering.
We chose this question to get an idea about the opportunities available for the children of these
families in the field of education and the various difficulties which they might have to face for
availing it.
INTERPRETATION:

The survey data suggests that around 60% of the families do not have any child or if they have a
child then he is enrolled in any school or college. This is the brighter part of it. But darker side
says that still around two fifth of children still are not enrolled in school or college. This may
imply that due to poor financial family background the child is subjected to work in factories or
may be some other places that is CHILD LABOUR. Moreover, it can also be implied that the
child along with his parents is interested in his own family’s work and is not inclined towards
getting education. It can also be implied that the child is addicted to drugs or indulge himself
into criminal activities at an early age which is harmful to the society.
AWARENESS:

It is of great importance that the children not enrolled in any school should be enrolled
immediately. People should be made aware about the grate importance of knowledge over
money. They should be made to realize through awareness programs that after gaining proper
education a child can earn a lot more than his current earning. Besides if a child is indulged
into any criminal activities he should be immediately warned against it and his mind should be
tried to divert towards education. A good counsellor can be great help in this regard.
We decided upon this question as an extension of above to know whether they suffered from
financial problems for their education as well as of their children.

INTERPRETATION:

The survey shows that about 80-85 % of people have suffered or are suffering from financial
problems due to neither did they got educated nor are they able to provide education to their
children in the way they probably wanted. Though the data suggests that literacy rate of Tamil
Nadu is about 80% but the people faced financial troubles while getting or providing education.
Moreover, they may not be satisfied with education which they received and they do not consider
themselves literate by mere knowing how to sign.
We chose this question in order to determine whether such people are able to take advantages of
new technological development happening daily.

Digital literacy is the knowledge, skills, and behaviors used in a broad range of digital devices
such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop PCs, all of which are seen as network rather
than computing devices

INTERPRETATION:

Our data shows that only around 20% of people agreed to it that they are digitally literate.
Majority of the people are digitally illiterate or they are not sure how they can relate themselves
or utilize technology in their life. This is exactly opposite to that of upper class who could not
even imagine their life without technology. By using such technologies they can get large
amount of information or job opportunities or policies and programs of the government. But due
this illiteracy they are unable to use such technologies in their life which further hinders their
upliftment.

Digital India is a campaign launched by the Government of India to ensure that Government
services are made available to citizens electronically by improving online infrastructure and by
increasing Internet connectivity or by making the country digitally empowered in the field of
technology. The people would not be able to take complete benefits of this campaign launched
by government unless they are digitally literate.
Methods to improve:

According to us, various campaigns launched by different government in this regard could succeed
only if they are made digitally literate. For this to be done various government agencies as well as
NGO’s could work together and organize large scale digital literacy programs.
Students could come up with their innovative ideas to help in this regard like making a friendly app
or website which would teach the basics striving towards becoming digitally literate.

Also it is necessary that the government could give financial help (may be in form of
subsidies) to the people who are unable to afford it on their own.

In recent days a great attention has been paid by the government towards cleanliness specially
due to the launch “SWACCH BHARAT MISSION”. So we tried to gather the data of peoples’
satisfaction towards cleanliness.
INTERPRETATION:

The data tells us that around 50-55% of people feel the cleanliness to be average but not bad. But
still around 45% people feel their surroundings not sufficiently cleaned despite the steps taken by
government.

METHODS TO IMPROVE:

For improving cleanliness of a place first of all people of that place need to be made aware about its
demerits such as the diseases which could occur. Besides the shopkeepers and the roadside vendors
can help a lot in this regard. They can help by keeping a dustbin outside their shops since the
municipal bins are at a distance apart. People should be urged to participate actively in
“SWACCH BHARAT” campaign.
Interpretation

We conducted a survey and the results are contradictory to the government claims
of wide reaching coverage of the basic facilities for the people. The results in some
cases were appalling.
Around 90.3% families in Vellore have toilets installed in their homes. Still 9.7%
of the people we surveyed do not have toilets installed in their homes.
The electricity coverage is not good. As Vellore is a district, it should have had
100% coverage but only 96.8% of the houses have electricity supply. Electricity is
a basic need of daily life and very important aspect of today’s lifestyle.
In this technological era it is shocking that only 69.9% people have
telephone/mobile connection and just 4.3% have broadband/Wi-Fi connection. The
people of Vellore seem to be environment considerate because only 4.3% people
have air conditioners.
The condition of drinking water is drastic as only 25.8% people have access
to treated drinking water. Around 55.9% people have a LPG connection.
Solution:-
As a part of the Swach Bharat Abhiyaan the government of India must take some
solid steps to insure the cleanliness and hygiene in the society in which we live in.
1. Overall public awareness should be increased
2. Professional marketing of sanitation should be done in areas to those
lacking basic sanitation facilities
3. Stimulating private sector interest in sanitation market.
4. Advocating to decision makers in public, private and civil sectors
5. Since LPG is a very efficient fuel, the government should subsidize its rate to
a greater extent, so as to meet the demands of every common man. We also
need to work on the distribution, so that it reaches every corner of the
country. Same time safety should be given utmost importance. Defected
cylinders must not be put to use.
Interpretation
We chose this question to know if the people are financially self-sufficient or not
and if they are not then what are the means of coming out of financial troubles.
Everyone knows that debt is never good for a family as it creates a loop of never
ending cycles which engulfs the family in the long run. People are never financially
secure if they are in debt and even they can’t afford the
In our survey we found that there was a quit a lot of debt on the people of Vellore
and since most of the people were from lower income group in the data, this
figure becomes worrisome because debt in inversely proportional to living
standards. There is one more significant data that is affecting people that is that
many people have taken loans from unorganized sectors and that creates a lot of
tension in the society.

Solution:-
For approximately 49-50% of the people the people who are in debt awareness camp
should be setup on how to overcome debts. Debt counseling centers should be setup
which provide a strategy for overcoming debts.
How to improve education at government schools in the
town?
Government schools serve the majority of children in our country. These schools have witnessed
a decline in their services, and increasingly they are accessed by the poor and the marginalized.
Across India, a handful of committed individuals have led efforts to improve government
schools, in the belief that they could demonstrate or induce an enduring change in the system.
The overall objective of school improvement planning is an enhanced level of student
achievement. To effect real change, however, the process needs to focus on specific priorities.
Student performance improves when teachers use curriculum-delivery strategies that specifically
address the needs of their students, when the school environment is positive, and when parents
are involved in their children’s education. Therefore, schools should concentrate on these three
areas—curriculum delivery, school environment, and parental involvement

How to improve cleanliness in public places of the town?

People can be helped to keep a place clean. These tips makes it easier for people to do
the right thing and encourage them to be positively involved.

• Clean environments lead to less littering and more binning. People in areas that are
kept clean are less likely to litter.

• It’s important to respond to people’s actions, be they positive or negative. Both

sanctions and rewards play a central role in developing and shaping disposal behaviour.

• No matter what the system, it needs to be accessible, convenient and user

friendly. Accessibility encourages the proper use of bins.
How to minimise the difficulties of finding jobs in the town?
Its harder to find jobs in these areas because many of the factories has gone for automation
and the only options available are CMC and VIT. So People must know about the government
schemes to provide employment to citizens.

This shows that about 70% people says that its hard to find a job in their town.Government has
made many scheme to provide employment to each and every person then also people find the
difficulty in finding a job In their town.
Methods to improve Living Standard of People

It is necessary to keep improving the standard of people's material and cultural life, with
promotion of the overall development of the human being as the center. Efforts should be made
to gradually establish a well-functioning social development system and make greater progress
in improving the quality of people's life, improving their living environment and creating more
development opportunities for them. All efforts aim to enable the capital to continue leading the
country in comprehensive development and let people lead a more convenient, healthier and
happier life.

I. Expanding employment in urban and rural areas

Adjusting the employment structure to create more job opportunities. India should speed up the
development of its service industry, particularly community services and a modern service
industry serving new- and high-tech industries, thereby creating more job opportunities and
employment channels. It is necessary to actively develop medium-sized and small enterprises,
labor-intensive ones in particular, and bring into full play the role of urban and rural self-
employed people and private businesses in providing jobs. The government should promote
elastic employment through the introduction of a periodic employment system. It should guide
workers to change their old employment concept and encourage them to take diversified forms of
paying jobs to ease unemployment.

Improving the labor market and promoting a rational and orderly flow of labor. It is necessary to
establish and standardize employment agencies and intermediate employment services to put in
place an employment service system covering both urban and rural areas and characterized by a
function combination: serving public interests and operating according to commercial principles.
The government should improve the employment service network that operates for public
interests, provide better employment services for the unemployed and establish a market-oriented
employment mechanism. It should also strengthen supervision over law enforcement, safeguard
the legitimate rights and interests of workers and enterprises and gradually allow employment
work to be done according to laws and regulations.

Strengthening vocational training to improve the quality of workers. The government should
strengthen vocational skill development, on-job training and reemployment-oriented training,
and introduce a reserve labor training system. By the end of the Tenth Five-year Plan period,
the rate of training for graduates of junior and senior middle schools before their first jobs is to
exceed 90%.
II. Improving social security

Efforts should be made to establish a multi-layered social security system that is detached from
individual enterprises and institutions, and has a multiplicity of fund sources, standard
operational rules and socialized administration and services. The government should play a
major role in the process and efforts should focus on system establishment. The goal is to
basically establish a complete, unified social security system covering the entire
society.Improving the urban social security system. Work includes: expand the coverage of a
basic pension system, include all institutions and their employees in a centralized pension system
and speed up the establishment of a basic pension system for civil servants. Efforts also include:
basically complete supportive reforms for the pension system so that old people are supported by
a combination of basic pension, supplementary pension and personal savings for old age needs.
Reform of the basic medical insurance system for urban employees should be speeded up so that
a multi-layered medical insurance system comes into existence that consists of medical
allowances for civil servants, big-sum medical mutual assistance, enterprise supplementary
medical insurance, and commercial enterprise medical insurance and social medical assistance.
Related supportive reforms should be carried out and administration over basic medical services
should be improved. Methods for expense reimbursement and expense control should be
improved. Efforts should be made to improve the unemployment insurance system and expand
the system's coverage with the goal of establishing a mechanism that ensures basic means of
living for the unemployed and promotes reemployment. The government should work toward a
pooling of industrial injury insurance fees and keep improving care for victims of industrial
injuries. A child birth insurance system should be initiated at an appropriate time. The
government should also develop occupational rehabilitation programs and help workers
victimized by industrial injuries do work that is fit for their physical conditions. Pushing ahead
with the establishment of a rural social security system. The government should further improve
the existing primary health service system in rural areas; it should re-establish and improve
cooperative medical services. A fund-pooling mechanism should be established in accordance
with the principles of voluntary participation and non-governmental initiation with government
assistance. Funds for medical services in rural areas are to come mainly from individuals with
support from collectives and the government. The role of the family in taking care of the aged
should be brought into full play; and the government should explore for a system of caring for
the aged that is suited to conditions in India's rural areas. It should also reform the rural old-age
insurance system in accordance with the principles of: fund pooling mainly from individuals,
financial assistance from collectives, government guidance and voluntary participation. The
government encourages other old age insurance forms such as personal savings and the buying
of commercial insurance policies. Encouraging the development of enterprise supplementary
insurance and commercial insurance. It is necessary to let enterprise supplementary insurance
and commercial insurance play a supplementary role to the social security system. The
government encourages enterprises to participate in supplementary insurance if they have the
financial conditions to do so; and such enterprises should enjoy benefits that are fully tied to
their contributions. Those offering commercial insurance policies should increase service items
and expand their service scope to meet high-level demand from organizations and people who
are better positioned financially.

III. Developing public health and sports undertakings

To satisfy the need of urban and rural residents to improve their health, it is necessary to further
speed up the development of public health and sports undertakings, promote commercialization
in a big way and form a multi-layered service system.

Deepening reform of medical care. Reform should be carried out of the internal administrative
system of medical institutions and their operational mechanism, and socialization of logistic
services of hospitals should be accelerated. The medical service charge system should be
reformed, centering on "total cost control and structural readjustment", and the financial
compensation mechanism for medical and public health institutions should be standardized. It is
necessary to deep reform of the medicine supply system. Regional public health-related planning
should be strengthened and health care institutions should be established through multiple
channels and in different forms, with a view to basically completing the construction of a new-
type medical service system in which community public health service organizations, general
hospitals and specialized hospitals have a rational division of work. It is necessary to push ahead
with reform of a supervisory system for medical and public health services. Attention is to be
paid to the development of disease prevention. It is necessary to establish and improve the city's
system dealing with medical emergencies and its disease prevention system, and strengthen the
prevention of infectious diseases, local diseases and occupational diseases and the monitoring,
prevention and control of major diseases.

Developing community health services. Efforts should be made to establish a new mode of
community health services. Such a mode has the following characteristics: its sphere of
services is the community, the household serves as the basic unit, and all work is focused on
promoting the health of the residents.

Strengthening health work in rural areas. It is necessary to consolidate and develop cooperative
medical services in rural areas, further strengthen primary health care there and improve the
services of rural hospitals. Efforts should be made to have rural cooperative services cover
more administrative villages and rural people and increase farmers' disease-resisting capability.

Developing sports undertakings in a big way. Taking advantage of India's application to host the
Olympic Games, the government should push for the development of sports undertakings. It
should organize meticulously and run well such big international sports competitions as the 21st
World University Games and the 13th Asian Cup Football Games. The National Keep-Fit
Program should be carried out in real earnest. Construction of public sports facilities should be
strengthened. A national constitution monitoring system should be established and improved.
Popular sports activities should be promoted with emphasis on schools, towns and townships.
Attention is to be paid to development of physical training for the aged and the handicapped. The
goal is to enable major indexes of the constitution of India's residents to approach or reach levels
in medium-developed countries.
IV. Improving community service system

India should speed up the construction of community service facilities, strengthen the service
functions of the community, improve community service organizations and create modern,
civilized communities. These efforts are to ensure that residents do not have to go outside the
community to get basic livelihood-related services.

Improving community service facilities and service network. Community welfare services
should be provided to solve livelihood-related difficulties for the aged, the young, the
handicapped, orphans and childless old people. Community health care should be provided,
comprehensive medical services developed and knowledge on self-saving and mutual saving
popularized. Good community family planning-related services should be provided. Efforts
should be made to develop community employment services and improve the community
employment service network to promote re-employment for the unemployed in the community.
Community cultural and sports facilities should be improved to enrich residents' life in their
spare time. Community education and community scientific and technological services should
be provided to improve resident's scientific and cultural qualities. Provision of community legal
services should be encouraged to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of residents.
Greater efforts should be made to provide community safety services.

Promoting the development of community service industries. It is necessary to establish an

administrative system for community planning that involves the extensive participation of
grassroots governments and people and promote the socialization of community services. The
initiatives of social forces including enterprises, institutions, social bodies, social intermediate
organizations and residents should be brought into full play; and community resources should
be fully utilized and rationally distributed to raise the efficiency of their utilization. Community
services should be combined with regional economic development and gradually become
commercialized.

Strengthening the construction of and administration over residential districts. The government
should launch demonstrative residential district development projects and encourage the building
of residential districts with different features and functions. For property management, a
competitive mechanism should be introduced, and administration and services should be
standardized. A comprehensive tidying-up of the urban environment should be conducted to
ensure that residents have a clean, beautiful, quiet and comfortable living environment.
V. Improving people's quality of life

Increasing the incomes of urban and rural residents. At the same time when the economy keeps
developing, it is necessary to increase the incomes of urban and rural residents by all means, the
incomes of low-income people in particular. During the Tenth Five-year Plan period, per-capita
disposable incomes of urban and rural residents of India are to increase at an annual rate of
more than 6%, at constant prices. Reform of the pay system should be deepened; the principle of
efficiency first and due attention to fairness should be followed; the principle of to each
according to his labor should be combined with distribution according to productive factors; and
participation of such productive factors as capital and technology in wealth distribution should
be encouraged. Efforts also include: standardization of the social wealth distribution order, a
strengthening of the regulatory function of taxation on people's incomes, protection of
legitimate incomes, rectification of irrational incomes, regulation of excessively high incomes,
abolition of illegal incomes, and prevention of an excessive widening of the income gap.

Improving the quality of people's life. It is necessary to keep improving the standard of people's
material and cultural life. Living space for urban and rural residents should be increased and
great efforts should be made to solve housing difficulties for low- and medium-income people.
India should strive to increase per-capita housing floor space to 18 square meters by 2005. In
the light of the trend of cars and the Internet going into homes, construction of public service
facilities such as roads, telecom and cable radio and television should be speeded up. People's
consumption scope should be expanded; their consumption on tourism, culture, entertainment
and other services should increase. The government should adopt a policy of encouraging
consumption; and the variety and scale of credit spending should be expanded. Efforts should be
made to enrich people's cultural life, improve medical care, and create a good social order.

Improving the system of ensuring a minimum standard of living for urban and rural residents.
The government should adjust the minimum livelihood guarantee line and related standards to
ensure a minimum standard of living for low-income people. A similar system should be
established in rural areas in the process of urbanization.
CREATING AWARENESS AMONG THE PEOPLE FOR
DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

Since independence the government has launched many scheme on development activities
emphasizing programmes to lower the gap between the rich and the poor and narrow the
disparity between the have and the have-nots in an orderly systematic five year plans. We are
now in the second year of the seventh five-year planning period i.e. 1986-87.

No doubt, India has progressed to a level to compete other developed nations in industrialization,
agriculture, science, technology, and modernization. On the contrary majority of them are
poverty stricken, illiterates, ill health and powerless. It is a fact that, every year crores of money
is spent in assisting the poor families in a view to improve their economic condition and
eventually raise them form below the poverty line. The schemes like Integrated Rural
Development Programme, National Rural Employment Programme, Rural Landless
Employment Guarantee Programme, Drought Prone Areas Programme, Special Livestock
Production Programme, Agricultural Development Programme, Training for Rural Youth for
Self Employment, Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas, Primary Health Care,
Rural Water Supply, Rural Road etc., are intended to supplement in assisting those families
whoever unable to cross the poverty line during the previous plans and to take new beneficiaries
in the current and consequent years.

One of the fundamental drawbacks of these developmental plans is the lack of awareness of rural
reality by the planners and policy makers. The other drawbacks are-the recipients are never
consulted what are their problems and its root causes, lack of people's participation, decision
making and people not being aware of the programme designed and not prepared to receive such
development programmes. The development programmes are sometimes thrusted on the people,
even that particular programme may not be the felt need of a family or the community for sake of
coverage of the target aimed at in a time period.

Before drawing out development programmes, it is a prerequisite for every policy maker to
know the people, their culture, familiar with their problems and a fair degree of knowledge of
the social and cultural, economic political systems making the people poorer and poorer. The
village social system is so complex and the cultural diversification eclipse the people, in
accepting their own conditions without questioning the acceptance of their suffering without
ever being conscious of their problem- a peaceful reconciliation. The values of life inherited and
adopted totally make them immune to their suffering. Over ages, this kind of social and cultural
life leaves the people beyond their capacity to correct and stabilize the systems to benefit them.

The village economic system is so neatly designed through unjust and exploitative means to
keep the majority always poor and dependent. The economic system being basically feudal and
individualistic, the improvement of the people form less to more only strengthens selfishness,
appropriate of capital and perpetuation of exploitative systems. In other words the developmental
activities, places these poor people in a very unfair competition with a few that have power of
money and leadership.
Cast in a system where the rich and the powerful have the means to entice, threaten and enslave
poor people do not permit development of the poor. In spite of democratic political
representation, the people's problem remains unattended. It seems, even this weapon is moulded
to fit into the exploitative and oppressive, social, economic and cultural systems of the country
to make the people poorer.

The release of the poor from the clutches of the system through development activities may be
possible for a period of time, but the freedom and independence cannot be sustained for long.

The present condition of the Indian rural economy needs no evidence of facts and statistics to
say that poverty and ignorance have continued to be inseparable companions of the rural people.
The benefits of the rural development programme, not to speak of the general development
plans, have not percolated to the poor because of their backwardness. Hence, there is a need to
have change in the overall system causing the perpetuation of backwardness through systematic
exploitation.

Needless to say, most of the personnel's who are responsible to implement the programmes both
the government and of the voluntary organizations belonging to socially and economically
upper class also accept the legitimacy of the class system and not terribly bothered to
understand the rural reality. This attitude leaves the schemes less effective to bring the lower
class out of their misery.

It is prerogative and inevitable to identify those elements of backwardness and influencing

factors of poverty before planning or undertaking a development programme. Therefore, it is
impertinent to create awareness through an educational process to make the people to break the
barriers of development created by caste, religion, cultural, traditions, and economic
exploitation. And only then, the small, marginal and landless labourers could be delinked from
their day to day dependence on the village landlords and the money lender. Very often, it
becomes convenient to the poor to become a consumer by selling and mortgaging their
productive units. The exploitative market forces and the temptations of happy and easy life for
which the resource could be readily found from the village moneylender makes the people poor.
This could easily set reverse process as soon as the strong motivation disappears. The aims of
creating awareness should attempt to create and enable the families who are poor as a collective
force to practice through productive exercise. The awareness should be able to consolidate new
people's effort through an organization where each member is committed to see each member of
the community of the village, does not back slide, but accept a new code of conduct benefiting
the whole community.
Creating awareness through a new educational methodology is crucial for the liberation of the
people form their own ignorance, lethargy and habits that play them straight into the village
economic system of exploitation of the poor by the rich in the village. Mere provisions of
economic aids for the people such as better cultivation, better houses, and the like will not
ensure in the continuity of the progress achieved. Creating awareness should be built within the
local community dynamics as a permanent measure in the leadership of the village. Hence,
imparting education or creating awareness should give the poor the capacity to produce an
income from the given capital, land and skill is the crux of development. Moreover, these
productive units shall be well guarded against exploitation means and try to create an alternative
of social, economic, cultural and political system thereby they do not pave the way for the rich
to exploit nor create a situation to be exploited.

Therefore, creating awareness must be focused on a stronger element of self-reliance of the

community. A type of self-sufficient production and distribution system in the village has to
be created and the people should be able to operate that simple system, is the only guarantee of
the long-term self-reliance and overall development.

Today, the development activities only attempt to assist an individual family and thus making
them individualistic. This concept does not permit an overall development of the larger
community. Finally, the awareness building should equip the people with an expertise to
identify the problem the development process, to organize and question the systems making
them poor and to undertake appropriate and relevant programmes to overcome such problems
in attaining development.

Hence, creating awareness among people for development activities is crucial. Therefore,
everyone involved in development activity of the people should develop a sense of
commitment to analyse genuine factors of underdevelopment. To highlight some of the
problems for underdevelopment are as follows: -

- Unequal distribution of land

- Larger family with less productive units
- Division of land ownership
- Unable to protect land ownership
- Traditional land tenure systems - mortgage, tenancy, share cropping
- Lack of investment and productive assets
- Irregular employment opportunity
- Low wages
- Borrowing, money lending and higher rate of interest
- Repayment procedures
- Expenses on unnecessary needs (social and customary habits, merry making etc.)

Whatsoever development plans and activities are implemented without reference and awareness
of the above-mentioned problems, the majority of the people can never be developed and it will
only help the rich to become richer.

The development personnel before formulating any policies should ensure entry into the village
and be accepted and gain confidence of the people. Always the developmental personnel do
represent a cultural entity alien to the culture of the people. Hence, careful methodology and
strategy should be adopted to make familiar himself with the people and enable them to believe
that he/she has not come to disturb their life but to work along and share with them to remove their
backwardness in the due course. This will enable and equip the development personnel to keep
close touch with the poor and to know their problems in their day-to-day life.
Through individual contact, dialogue, group discussion and community meetings the
personnel should acquire a fair degree of familiarity with the people and their culture, the
needs and priorities and the awareness programme to be implemented.

The development personnel shall identify target groups and collect vital information's exercising
positive discrimination in favour of the agricultural labourer, bonded labourer, tenant farmers,
small and marginal farmers, non agricultural labourer, forest labourer, Unemployed (educated or
other wise) women, artisans and the youth. The personnel should build bridges of trust and
friendship with the target groups.

All these attempts culminate in the process of unification of like-minded people into an
organization. The most important elements in the plan of the development programme shall be
flexibility and open endedness. The methodology shall be subject to change in response to the
needs and challenges of the village situation. No prefabricated ("house") shall be built scheme
into the village development programmes.

The motivational pendulum of awareness which is round the clock should keep the people on
the move of learning through their experiences, thus strengthen the capabilities of the people to
enable themselves to draw out relevant strategies to the more organized and work in order to
shift the SEP or cultural systems to their favor - to democratic, secular and socialist society. To
communicate to the people possible means of communication methods shall be adopted taking
into account the culture and tradition. Relevant messages shall be documented and disseminated
to the poor and at one stage the people should be trained to communicate within themselves
without any financial constraints.

Hence, the media has an important role to play in changing the lifes of the people through
disseminating relevant information to the people that would help them to make their own
destiny.
Living Standards of People in Vellore – A comparison with the actual data
(All the comparisons have been made with the existing governmental data from the 2011
National Census.)

1. Gender –

The governmental records show that the sex ratio of the city is 1004, a commendable
figure. However, in our survey, 78.5% of the total respondents were male. This is very
contrasting in terms of the actual data. The main reason for this is that we surveyed
mostly the working class for the society. This thus indicates that a majority of male
population constitutes the working class. This is also reflected in the fact that the main
working population (Male) is about 959,108, whereas that of Females is 401,077. This
about 2.39 times more.

This figure showcases the fact that the gender inequality still prevails in Vellore. The
number of working women must therefore increase. For achieving this, there must be a
lot of grass-root level reach out programmes to educate them about this matter, and
explain them the importance of employment to them, not only in financial terms, but also
in literary terms.

2. Number of members living in your house –

Through our survey, we found that 18.3% and 51.6% of the respondents lived alone and
in nuclear families respectively. This in quite less (about 18% lesser) when compared
with the governmental data, which states that about 88.9% of the people live in small
households. This indicates that there has been an overall growth since 2011 in the
number of joint families and larger households. This is probably a result of the result in
the growth of urbanisation in the previous decade.

However, despite these figures, Vellore lags in the level of urbanisation attained (about
37%), as compared to the state’s level of urbanisation (about 44%). This can only be
improved upon when the state provides a mush broader focus on cities other than
Chennai for urbanisation.
3. Literacy Rates, Awareness about different public schemes by the govt. –

A striking difference occurs here. As per the survey, only about 51.2% of the people
considered themselves to be literate. But, the governmental figure is close to 68.2%.
Hence, somewhere down the line, there are some loopholes in the educational institutions
and awareness policies. This is also reflected by the fact that about 41.9% of the people
consider the education provided at the government schools as pretty average.
Furthermore, nearly 82.8% of the respondents faced financial difficulties in providing
education to their children. Even though the percentage of children studying in schools is
high, the quality of education being provided may not be adequate for improving the
standard of living.

Although a stark improvement is seen in the stats, a lot is yet to be accomplished. The
quality of governmental schools needs to improve. Also, since a huge number of people
face financial issues in the educating purpose, the govt. should look into this matter and
bring about appropriate amendments in the system.

4. Health care facilities –

Sadly, close to 72.8% of the total number of the respondents didn’t have any health
insurance. Insufficient manpower, lack of fund allocation and non-adherence to water
quality have led to serious health problems of citizens in Vellore City Municipal
Corporation. From the survey, it’s clear that several of its health facilities are
dysfunctional.

An audit by the Comptroller Auditor General shows that six of the 17 health institutions,
including three urban health posts, four maternity centres and 10 dispensaries, are
functioning poorly. This quite a shocking scenario.

The number of deliveries in the four maternity centres has also reduced by half. The audit
raises concern about the unhygienic conditions at the Ambedkar Nagar health post, where
maternity and post-delivery recovery rooms are close to the slaughtering area of the
adjacent to a slaughter house.

Even after having world renowned medical college, the Christian Medical College
(CMC), is surprising that Vellore city fails miserably to provide proper healthcare
support to the people of the city. Hence, to overcome this issue, the government must
ensure proper maintenance and development of the public healthcare facilities. Also, a
check must be made on the level of availability of these resources to the people.
Results and Discussion-
To improve and aware the living standard of people in Vellore, an overall study shows that this is
not only case here but all over the India and hence we must discuss what to do on national level
to improve that.
India has come a long way in modernizing its economy, reducing poverty and improving
living standards for a large segment of its population.
Its economy has been one of the largest contributors to global growth over the last decade,
accounting for about 10% of the world’s increase in economic activity since 2005, while GDP per
capita in PPP (purchasing power parity) terms is today three times as high as in 2000.
Yet, this period also witnessed a rise in inequality, which has been mainly driven by income
gaps between India’s states, and a growing urban-rural divide. India continues to have the largest
number of poor in the world (approximately 300 million are in extreme poverty), and nearly half
of the poor are concentrated in five states.
Growth has slowed in recent years and several challenges remain unsolved. Bringing more people
into the process of generating growth and sharing the gains more widely will make India more
resilient for the future.With one of the largest and youngest populations in the world, India needs to
create millions of good-quality jobs in the near future to ensure decent living conditions for the vast
majority of its citizens.The country is often cited as an example of an economy that is modernizing
by jumping directly into services without passing through manufacturing. The weight of
manufacturing in India has been relatively stable over the past two decades, at much lower levels
than China and ASEAN countries. Business services – a high value added sector – represent a larger
share of economic activity in India than in Europe.Will India be able to achieve shared prosperity
without a growing manufacturing sector? Agriculture accounts today for only 16% of total value
added (down from 44% in 1965), but still employs about half of the Indian population. Productivity
in this sector did not increase significantly in the past decades, limiting improvements in living
standards in rural areas.Despite India’s relatively strong record in terms of economic growth over
the last decade, its middle class remains small and getting a job is no guarantee of escaping
poverty.India must take further action to ensure that the growth process is broad-based in order to
reduce the share of the population living on less than $2 a day—many of whom are employed in
informal and low skilled jobs. Educational enrollment rates are relatively low across all levels, and
quality varies greatly, leading to notable differences in educational performance among students
from different socioeconomic backgrounds.The gender gaps in labour force participation and wages
are both high, showing that India’s women are not benefiting equally from economic opportunities.
India scores well in terms of access to finance for business development and real economy
investment (investment channelled towards productive uses), yet new business creation continues to
be held back by administrative burdens. India also under-exploits the use of fiscal transfers
compared to peer countries.
Bibliography-
• https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/11/19-charts-
that- explain-indias-economic-challenge/

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living_in_India

• http://www.economicsdiscussion.net/articles/standard-
of- living-meaning-factor-and-other-details/1453

• https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-
living/country_result.jsp?country=India

• Library Book