Disparities in Ownership of Household Assets among the Tribal Households in Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

This paper was an attempt to analyse the distribution pattern of household assets and to assess the existing level of disparities in the ownership of household assets among the tribal households in Himachal Pradesh. For this purpose, the firsthand information is collected from 439 tribal households from all the seven community development block constituting the tribal belt of Himachal Pradesh with the help of multistage random sampling during 2013–14. The results showed that the value of household assets showed an increasing tendency with an increase in the size of holdings. The analysis highlighted that the distribution of the household assets among the tribal population in Himachal Pradesh is highly skewed and the disparities in the distribution of household assets are showing an increasing tendency with an increase in the size of land holdings. This paper will be helpful in carrying out further extensive analysis and showing a way to reduce the existing disparities in asset distribution in Himachal Pradesh.