Social, Demographic and Economic Change in Northeast India

The present study attempts to provide an empirical assessment of the socio- demographic and economic changes in Northeast India. The study design is based on data from the two rounds of the India Human Development Survey conducted in 2004–05 and 2011–12. The study found that the average household annual income has enhanced over time for most of the states in Northeast India with a simultaneous decline in household size. The proportion of households headed by non-literate persons declined marginally from 84.5 to 81.3 percent in rural households. Upward social mobility among Other Backward Classes (OBCs) has declined from 27.9 to 15.2 percent, while it has increased from 33.3 to 41.2 percent among the general catergory. For the region as a whole, only 8.9 percent of households have shifted from lower to upper castes, that is, OBC to general category or ST/SC to general category or to OBC.