60% of rural households have no toilets: NSSO

Number of urban slums falls by a third in 4 years.

Despite the slowing economy and high inflation,the number of urban slums have fallen by nearly a third while the access to electricity,water and sanitation has improved across households in the four year period up to 2012. But worryingly,nearly 60 per cent of rural households continue to have no access to latrines even 66 years after Independence.

The findings,which are a part of two separate reports released by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) as part of its 69th round surveys,are likely to bring some respite to the government ahead of the general elections next year. The data is crucial as it not only provides a scorecard of government measures but is also used as an input for formulating future policies on housing and urban and rural development.

According to the NSSO survey on the key indicators of urban slums,the number of urban slums in the country declined by 31.7 per cent to 33,510 in 2012 from 49,000 in 2009. About 41 per cent of these slums were notified and 59 per cent non-notified or temporary. However,88 lakh families continue to live in urban slums,which accounts for 10.8 per cent of all urban households.

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Amongst states,Maharashtra has 7,723 or 23 per cent of all such settlements in the country. Andhra Pradesh had the second largest number of slums,accounting for 13.5 per cent of all such settlements,followed by West Bengal at 12 per cent. Any compact settlement with a collection of poorly built tenements,mostly of temporary nature,crowded together,usually with inadequate sanitary and drinking water facilities in unhygenic conditions,provided at least 20 households lived there,was considered a slum for the survey, the NSSO report said. The survey also revealed that 24 per cent of all slums across the country benefited from government welfare schemes such as Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

Meanwhile,the 69th round survey on key indicators of drinking water,sanitation,hygiene and housing conditions reported that although there has been some improvement in living conditions across the country,open defecation continues to be rampant as just 40 per cent households in rural areas had access to toilets compared to 35 per cent in 2009. In urban areas,91.2 per cent houses had access to latrines in 2012 as against 89 per cent in the previous survey.

Also,62.3 per cent of rural households and 16.7 per cent of urban households did not have any bathroom facilities in 2012. Power availability too has improved,the data said,with 80 per cent rural households and 97.9 per cent urban households having electricity. Significantly,the survey coincides with the post global financial crisis period when Indias growth rate slowed down from eight per cent in 2009-10 to 5 per cent in 2012-13.

The NSSO data also revealed that 70.8 per cent of households had moved out of slums and squatter settlements due to availability of better accommodation.

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The report on urban slums is based on a survey of 3,832 urban blocks and 881 slums were surveyed in these urban blocks. The report on drinking water,sanitation,hygiene and housing conditions is based on a sample of 4,475 villages and 3,522 urban blocks.

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