Cumulative opportunity-based accessibility measurement framework in rural India

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Cumulative opportunity-based accessibility measurement framework in rural India

Singh, Shivendu Shekhar / Sarkar, Basudatta

Abstract The paper proposes an alternative measure of accessibility in the rural setting. The proposed measure has two major components: proximity and the ‘magnitude of supply’ of the distributed varied opportunities within a particular range from the rural inhabitations. Accessibility to major development parameters, health, education, and communication infrastructures being measured and validated with the cross-sectional data. The principal component of ‘accessibility,’ proximity to opportunities, and availability of mobility are manipulated to obtain the accessibility measure of all the inhabited rural settlements and being aggregated at subsequent hierarchy levels sub-districts and districts, the basic planning and policymaking unit in the Indian context. District-level indicators of education and health validate the measure by multivariate stepwise regression analysis. The distribution pattern being analyzed spatially to rationalize the measure would capture and identify the gaps in the infrastructure. The measure is census-based, simple in terms of communicability, cost-effective, undemanding of data, and an effort towards addressing the magnitude of supply of opportunities based on physical planning criteria.

Highlights • Short-distance walk rural accessibility. • Spatial and dimensional analysis of rural accessibility. • A supply-based cumulative accessibility measure.