Andhra Pradesh Profile

The monitoring of individual human rights experiences of people with disabilities in India took place in the state of Andhra Pradesh and involved 168 in-depth face-to-face interviews in three distinct sites. Before describing and discussing the results of this research, a profile of the state of Andhra Pradesh as well as of the three monitoring sites is provided.

Andhra Pradesh, abbreviated as A.P., and known as the "Rice Bowl of India", is a state in southern India. It lies between 12°41' and 22°N latitude and 77° and 84°40'E longitude, and is bordered by Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Orissa in the north, the Bay of Bengal in the East, Tamil Nadu to the south and Karnataka to the west. Andhra Pradesh is the 4th largest state in India by area 106,195 sq mi (275,608 km²) and population (75 million). It is the largest state in Southern India. Two major rivers, the Godavari and the Krishna run across the state. The small enclave (12 sq mi (30 km²)) of the Yanam district of Pondicherry state lies in the Godavari Delta in north-east of the state. Historically the region comprising the state was known as Andhraapatha, Andhradesa, Andhraavani, Andhra Vishaya, etc.

Andhra Pradesh can be divided into three regions, namely Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana. Andhra Pradesh has 23 districts. Hyderabad is the capital and, along with the adjoining twin city Secunderabad, is the largest city in the state. Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh's main seaport, is the second largest city of the state and is home to the Indian Navy's Eastern Naval Command. Vijayawada due to its location and proximity to major rail and road routes is a major trading center and the third largest city of the state.

Telugu is the regional and official language of the state, spoken by 83.75% of the population. Telugu is the third most spoken language in India. The major linguistic minority groups in the state include the speakers of Urdu (8.63%) and Hindi (3.23%). The Indian government designated Telugu as a classical and ancient language on November 1, 2008.

The main ethnic group of Andhra Pradesh is the Telugu people who primarily belong to the Dravidian peoples.

Note #1

Mainly Hindi

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Note #2

Mainly Urdu

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Note #3

Mainly Tamil

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Agriculture has been the chief source of income for the state's economy. Three important rivers of India, the Godavari, Krishna and Thungabhadra flow through the state, providing irrigation. Rice, sugarcane, cotton, mirchi (chilli pepper), mango and tobacco are the local crops. Recently, crops used for vegetable oil production such as sunflower and peanuts have gained favour. There are many multi-state irrigation projects in development, including Godavari River Basin Irrigation Projects and Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, the world's highest masonry dam.

Andhra Pradesh is a mineral rich state, ranking second in India in terms of mineral wealth. The state has about one third of India's limestone reserves, estimated at about 30 billion tonnes. The state ranks first nationwide in hydro electricity generation with national market share of over 11%. The state ranks fourth in terms of overall GSDP and fourth in per capita GSDP among the major states of India. But given the global recession impacting on the national economy as well, the figures mentioned above are more on the downtrend.

Andhra Pradesh has a Legislative Assembly of 294 seats. The state has 60 members in the Parliament of India; 18 in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House and 42 in the Lok Sabha, the Lower House. Andhra Pradesh had a series of governments headed by Congress (Indira) Party until 1982. Kasu Brahmananda Reddy held the record for the longest serving chief minister which was broken by N.T. Rama Rao in 1983. P.V. Narasimha Rao also served as the chief minister of the state, who later went on to become the Prime Minister of India in 1991. Among the notable chief ministers of the state are Tanguturi Prakasam, Chief Minister (CM) of Andhra State (the first CM of the present Andhra Pradesh was Neelam Sanjiva Reddy).

In 1983 the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) won the State elections and N.T. Rama Rao (NTR) became the chief minister of the state for the first time introducing a formidable second political party to Andhra Pradesh's politics and thus breaking the single party monopoly on Andhra Pradesh's politics. After a few months, Nadendla Bhaskar Rao usurped power when NTR was away in the United States for medical treatment. After coming back, NTR successfully convinced the then State Governor to dissolve the Assembly and call for a fresh election. TDP won the elections with a large majority and NTR became Chief Minister of the State for the second time. His government policies included investment in education, rural development and in holding corrupt government officials.

In 1989 Congress (I) came to power and in 1994 the TDP came back to power and ruled till 1999. In the 2004 Elections the Congress made a comeback, and the next State Elections are slated to be held in April 2009.

Andhra Pradesh is served by more than 20 institutes of higher education. All major arts, humanities, science, engineering, law, medicine, business and veterinary science are offered, leading to first degrees as well as postgraduate awards. Advanced research is conducted in all major areas. Andhra Pradesh has 1330 arts, science and commerce colleges; 1000 MBA and MCA colleges; 500 engineering colleges; and 53 medical colleges. The student to teacher ratio is 19:1 in higher education. According to the 2001 census, Andhra Pradesh has an overall literacy rate of 60.5%. While the male literacy rate is at 70.3%, the female literacy rate is only at 50.4%, a cause for concern.

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