Income and employment pattern of rural Households: A case study of high hill temperate zone households of Himachal Pradesh

Income and employment pattern has been reported in the rural areas of high hill temperate zone of Himachal Pradesh, based on the primary data collected from 60 rural households. The results revealed that the average family size of examined area comprised of 6 members where the percentage of male was found to be 53 percent. The average number of females per thousands of males was 889 in the study area. In the present study, number of nuclear families was found to be higher than the joint families. The average proportion of active workers was worked out to be 58.27 per cent and the overall dependency ratio w.r.t. total workers was found to be 1:1.40. Literacy situation revealed that nearly 83.48 percent family members were literate with a literacy index of 1.84, indicating poor quality of education in the study area. Average number of animals was found between 5-6 per household where maximum proportion constituted by sheep/goat and cows. About 48.48 percent of the total land holding was cultivated area with cropping intensity of 172 per cent. Income generated from different resources helped to elevate the socioeconomic status where maximum income generated from fruits (36.66%) and variation in income was highest in vegetables (61.35%).