India's Social Development Report indicated that vast portions of the country, especially in the North remained illiterate, remains below the poverty line. The report created by Council for Social Development and Oxford, said that a total of 260 million or 26%, 193 million in rural and 67 in urban areas, are believed to be under the poverty line. As established by social scientists, there is a correlation between literacy and poverty levels. Punjab has the least under poverty (6.16%) and Orissa has the highest (47.15%). With Scheduled Tribes with 43.8% below the poverty, Scheduled Castes with 36.2%, and Backward Castes with 20% showed the vast disparity in social structure. Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh, which contribute 45% of the population account for 2/3 of infant and maternal mortality. Uttar Pradesh alone has 26% infant mortality. This reinforces well-established theories that correlate increased population levels with infant mortality. Less than 25% of the children in these states are immunized. Analyzing 21 social indicators such as demography, healthcare, unemployment, education, poverty, and social deprivation the study ranked Kerala is ranked the highest and Bihar is the lowest. Madhya Pradesh has the highest Infant Mortality Rate at 82 per 1000 and Kerala has the lowest 11 per 1000. The Scheduled Castes, Tribes, and Backward Castes had very high infant mortality rates with 83, 85, and 76 per 1000 respectively. Kerala has the highest literacy at 90.92% and Bihar the lowest at 47.53%. Mizoram had the lowest gender gap 4.56% and Rajasthan had the highest gap of 32.12%. Consistent with earlier reports on female infanticide, the most developed states like Punjab had the largest child sex ration of 798 girls for 1000 boys compared to tribal-based backward states like Chhattisgarh had 973 girls to 1000 boys. It was speculated that richer societies use the banned sex determination tests to terminate girl children. The silver lining is that the poverty level is lower than last year.

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