Socio-Economic Conditions of Rural Labour in Andhra Pradesh: Agriculture is the Backbone for National Development

In Andhra Pradesh as on 1999-2000 rural households account for 12,719 thousand of which 49 per cent are rural labour households and 42.5 per cent are agricultural labour households. The agricultural labour accounts for 86.7 per cent of rural labour households in Andhra Pradesh. Among rural households in Andhra Pradesh, the social compositions of rural labour households are: BCs 43 per cent, SCs 35 per cent and STs 7.3 per cent.The reaming 13.9 per cent of rural labour households belongs to other forward communities i.e. OCs. According to this study, poverty in India is rural in nature since ru ral poverty accounted for 80 per cent of total poverty and the urban poverty is nothing but over flow of rural poverty. It means migration of rural poor to urban areas is the main cause for urban poverty. Similarly this study explained the fact that incidence of poverty among agricultural labour is highest at 57 per cent who accounts to 80 per cent of rural labour force. Further, the study brought fourth the fact that the number of poor in India has increased from 177 million in 1960-61 to 216 million in 1967-68 inspite of India s planned efforts to promote living conditions of our population.