By IANS,
New Delhi : One-third of identified slum households in India do not have latrines, says a report based on the 2011 census but notes that a sizeable percentage of the dwellings have electricity and mobile phone connections and televisions.
The report, released here Thursday by Housing and Poverty Alleviation Minister Ajay Maken, brings out hitherto unknown data regarding slum households including penetration of computers.
The ‘Report on housing stock, amenities and assets in slums based on house listing and housing census 2011’ says there are 19 cities where more than 25 percent of households live in slums.
Of these, in Visakhapatnam, Jabalpur, Mumbai, Vijayawada and Meerut, more than 40 percent of the people were slum dwellers.
“In all, 1.73 crore census houses have been reported in the house listing blocks categorised as slums in India, comprising 1.37 crore slum households,” says the report.
It says 66 percent households have latrine facility within the premises.
“Every third household (34 percent) has no latrine facility within the premises,” the report says and adds that 18.9 percent slum households defecate in the open and 15.1 percent use public latrines.
The report says 53.2 percent households avail banking service in slums.
It also notes that about 70 percent slum households have television while 18.7 percent possess radio or transistor.
The report says 10.4 percent households have computers/laptops of which 3.3 percent have internet connection (as against 9.3 percent in non-slum areas).
It says 72.7 percent slum households have telephones of which 4.4 percent have land line connections, 63.5 percent have mobiles and 4.8 percent have both.
It says more than 90 percent of slum households use electricity as the main source of lighting, 8.2 percent kerosene while 0.7 percent have other source of lighting and 0.5 percent have no lighting.
The report says 81 percent slum households have bathrooms or enclosures without roof.
It says 74 percent of slum households use tap as the main source of drinking water with about 20 percent using hand pump or tube well.
“Source of drinking water is available to 56.7 percent of households within the premises in slums; 31.9 percent have the sources located within 100 metres and 11.4 percent have to travel more than 100 metres to fetch drinking water,” the report says.
In his speech, Maken said his ministry would frame a ‘Slum Upgradation Index’ for each city and state for monitoring improvement in the condition of slums.
He said a committee would be set-up to suggest the methodology for preparing the index.
Maken said his ministry would not make any distinction between categorisations such as ‘Notified, Recognised and Identified Slums’ in providing financial assistance to states under the Rajiv Awaas Yojana.
He said the slum data would help redraw programmes and fix priorities under various schemes of the ministry.