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If having good road infrastructure and owning a vehicle, computer and mobile phone are indicators of growing mobility and connectivity, the people of soon to be State of Telangana are on firm ground, compared with the rest of Andhra Pradesh’s Seemandhra region.
According to the AP Census data of 2012, the number of people owning four-wheelers, computers, laptops and mobiles is growing across the 10 Telangana districts.
In length of roadways, Telangana almost matches the rest of the State. Of the total road network of 2.15 lakh km, the new State will have 90,000 km, with the rest falling in the 13 districts of Andhra (9) and Rayalaseema (4) together.
Rapidly growing industries in and around Hyderabad — especially the IT sector, which has given shape to ‘Cyberabad’ — employ a couple of lakh of young persons. Likewise, the Rajiv Gandhi international airport has catalysed growth in highway infrastructure.
In the case of banking services, about 53 per cent of households in Telangana have been tapped. A tad higher than the attempts of financial inclusion made in the Seemandhra region.
However, in areas of education, health, literacy and availability and access to/of basic services most of the 10 districts (excluding Hyderabad), fall short in comparison with the rest, especially the coastal districts. There is a historical basis for this.
Since the British dominated the coastal region, they had a headstart in education, especially with the institutions started by the missionaries and healthcare centres.
In contrast, Telangana was dominated by the Nizam, whose influence was pre-dominantly focussed on Hyderabad and its environs.
The health sector in the region is weak. In terms of State infrastructure, the total number of primary health centres in Seemandhra are 1,021 while Telangana has a mere 613. In the private sector, most corporate hospitals are concentrated in Hyderabad.
There are a few in Visakhapatnam, Nellore, Kakinada and Vijayawada, but hardly any in the Telangana districts.
As far as literacy goes, eight out of 10 districts have a literacy rate below the national average of 70 per cent. Of the 5,471 junior colleges in Andhra Pradesh, 2,729 are located in Telangana.
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