Socio-economic Exclusion of Different Religious Communities in Meghalaya
Abstract
Meghalaya, a state in the North Eastern India, is inhabited by over 2.3 million of population of which 70 percent are Christian, 13 percent are Hindus and a little over 4 percent are Muslims as obtained in the Census 2001. In this study we investigate if numerical dominance of a community leads to socio-economic dominance. We have constructed two composite indices of exclusion by weighted aggregation of 13 socio-economic indicators. The first composite index (I1) is obtained by maximization of the sum of absolute coefficients of correlation of the index with the indicator variables, while the second index (I2) is constructed by the principal components analysis that maximizes the sum of squared coefficients of correlation of the index with the indicator variables. In our judgment, the first index presents the reality more correctly, as a number of indicators undermined by I2 are given their due representation in I1. A perusal of the index (I1) reveals that while the Christian segment of population in the rural areas of Meghalaya is certainly better off than their Hindu or Muslim counterparts, they score comparatively poorly in the urban areas of Meghalaya. In the urban areas, the Muslim segment of the population is in the most advantageous position, followed by the Hindus. The Christians segment of population is more intensively excluded from the benefits of development. Thus, numerical dominance of a particular religious community does not entail socio-economic advantages. The advantages of numerical dominance may well be absorbed by the intra-community inequalities in the command over resources and opportunities.Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.Bibliographic Info
Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number 3441.Length:
Date of creation: 08 Jun 2007
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:3441
Contact details of provider:
Postal: Schackstr. 4, D-80539 Munich, Germany
Phone: +49-(0)89-2180-2219
Fax: +49-(0)89-2180-3900
Web page: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de
More information through EDIRC
Related research
Keywords: Religious communities; Hindu; Muslim; Christian; Meghalaya; exclusion; inequality; composite index; principal components; maximization; absolute; coefficient; correlation; North East; India;Find related papers by JEL classification:
- C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
- C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation
- R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2007-06-11 (All new papers)
- NEP-CWA-2007-06-11 (Central & Western Asia)
- NEP-SOC-2007-06-11 (Social Norms & Social Capital)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Mishra, SK, 2007. "A Comparative Study of Various Inclusive Indices and the Index Constructed by the Principal Components Analysis," MPRA Paper 3377, University Library of Munich, Germany.
Citations
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:3441For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Ekkehart Schlicht).
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

