Measuring Accessibility for Inclusive Development: A Census Based Index

State is often involved in the challenging process of judicious allocation and apportioning of resources for an inclusive growth through creating infrastructure and ensuring accessibility- the “ability of the people to reach and engage in opportunities and activities”. The issue at the heart of the debate concerns with the “opportunities” available in a geographic area and the inhabitants’ use of those opportunities in terms of their “behaviour”. The extant literature suggests that the dominant component of the accessibility is mobility infrastructure. The present paper argues that the impact of the human development and the information infrastructure should also be considered. This paper uses the Indian census data of 2001 and develops the methodology for creating an accessibility index for a geographic unit. The paper also discusses the use of the accessibility index (AI) as a tool for evaluating the efficacy of a public policy initiative towards decreasing the exclusion of geographic units. Validation of the tool is done using the patient inflow data at a large charitable hospital in Central India and household level employment data from National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).