Dr. Devendra Kothari
Population and Development Analyst
Forum for Population Action
India’s rank in the latest UN’s
Human Development Report has fallen from 127 in 2001 to 134 out of 187 countries
and territories in 2011. Further, India is simply not doing enough for its
women either. The Global
Gender Gap Report 2011, released by the World Economic Forum, reveals a stark
and deep rooted gender gap in India. It is pathetically ranked 113 amongst the
135 countries considered.
The country has fallen from 96th rank in 2006 to 113th in
the last 6 years according to the Report. This
is a rather shameful reflection of the
conditions in a country that is said to be on a growth song. It appears that the impact of the
economic reform program in enhancing the quality of human life in India has
been limited. The reform program concentrated more on the fiscal, structural
and trade adjustment rather than improving the living environment as well as
the social sector development[1].
The provision of basic services such
as piped water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) as well as electricity has been
an important goal of Indian developmental planning. Hence, a description of
these amenities from a household perspective provides an overview of the
success of public policies as well as the challenges facing these
policies. On March 13, 2012, the Registrar General of India
released the final figures for the first phase of the 2011 Census – known as
the Housing Census which includes data on household amenities and assets. The
data revealed several interesting facets of the Indian economy as well. While
at one end it highlights the improvement in the material well-being for large
sections of the society, it also paints a picture of stark contrast and
disparity in India.
The post aims to provoke a discussion and mobilize support for improving living conditions to improve the quality
of life. It is argued that until
the policy makers take a focused and long term interest in improving
the living environment or conditions, it will be rather
difficult to achieve an improvement Human Development Index as well as in achieving a significant breakthrough on maternal and
child health as well as on empowering women.
The census data
indicate that slightly more than one third of India’s population in 2011 was
enumerated in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar alone. Next seven States
namely West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh,
Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan. Karnataka and Gujarat accounted
for more than 43 percent of the total population. In other words, more than
three fourths of the country’s population was enumerated in these States and
the remaining 25 States and Union Territories recorded less than one fourth of
the population of the country. To understand the ground level situation, the
analysis is based on the data from these ten most populous States of India.
As per the Housing Census, there were
306 million occupied houses in India in 2011. The data indicate that there is
some improvement in the construction material used for roof, wall and floor,
both in rural and urban areas as compared to 2001. However, slightly more than half of the
occupied houses were in a “good” condition. There are more than 247 million
households in the country in 2011. “A ‘Household’ in Census is defined as group
of persons who normally live together and take their meals from a common
kitchen unless exigencies of work prevent any of them from doing so”. The
average number of persons per household is 4.9, and more than 70% of the
households in the country live in 1-2 room houses - very congested living
environment. Table 1 provides data on
household amenities and assets by major States of India.
Clean
water and sanitation form the backbone of an effective public health system.
However, the challenges of providing these services in a large and
heterogeneous country can be vast.
96% of households are using Tap, Tube well, Hand pump and
Covered well as the main source of drinking water while 43% tap water. Only 47%
of households have source of water within the premises while 53% of households travel more than half-a-km in rural
areas and more than 100 meters in urban areas to fetch their supplies. This
is a substantial loss of time that could be used for other purposes. In
addition, poor water supply has obvious health costs for both urban and rural
households, since only
one in three households are supplied ‘treated’ water in the country.
Nearly 65% households in rural India do not have drainage connectivity
and the risk of seepage of waste water into the hand pumps and tube wells is
quite high. Research
on health outcomes suggests that both the quality and the quantity of water are
important determinants of the prevalence of gastrointestinal diseases and
improving the maternal and child health. Also, chemical contamination of water in the
region is another major challenge. Millions
of people in the country suffer from water borne diseases on account of lack of
access to safe drinking water. It is the poor who suffer from higher prevalence
of disease as compared to the rich.
The
provision of tap water, at best, remains sketchy especially in rural areas.
Hand pumps, and tube wells are more common in rural areas. Whether in villages
or towns, tap water is rarely available 24 hours a day, as per the findings of
India Human Development Survey conducted by NCAER[2].
Most households (83%) have water available fewer than three hours on a typical
day. The inconsistent supply means that most households have to store their
water in containers, allowing the potential for contamination. The inter-State differences in the
availability of drinking water are quite striking. Almost 80% households in Tamil Nadu
and 70% in Andhra Pradesh have indoor piped water, while less than 5%
households in Bihar has that facility.
This
problem is further compounded by lack of access to sanitation. About 53% of Indian
households do not have a toilet within premises; only 36% have a flush toilet
(Water Closet). The absence of toilets is particularly stark in rural areas,
where 70% of households have no toilet, compared to 19% in urban areas. It is
interesting to note that a total
of 47% households in the country have latrine facilities within premises, a
significant increase from 36% over 2001. Still there are about 50% households
in India do not have latrine
facilities, it means around 600 million people defecate in open.
Further, only
51% of the households have drainage connectivity with two third have the closed
drainage. It means around 49% of total households in India are not connected
with drainage system at all inviting lots of health related problems[3]. This is a very sorry state of affairs for a
country which is the fourth
largest economy in the world. Again there are wide regional variations. All
the 10 major States of the country differ widely in the flush toilet
facilities. More than half of households in Gujarat have flush latrines, while
only 20% households in Bihar are lucky to have that facility (Table 1).
Table 1: Households with selected amenities: Major States of India, 2011
States
according to population size in 2011
|
% of households
with:
|
|||||||
Tap water
|
Flush latrine
|
Without drainage
|
Electricity
|
LPG
|
TV
|
Phone
/mobile
|
||
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
8
|
9
|
|
Uttar Pradesh
|
27
|
30
|
31
|
37
|
20
|
33
|
61
|
|
Maharashtra
|
70
|
43
|
33
|
84
|
43
|
57
|
54
|
|
Bihar
|
04
|
20
|
58
|
16
|
08
|
15
|
52
|
|
West Bengal
|
25
|
33
|
68
|
54
|
18
|
35
|
43
|
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
70
|
43
|
43
|
92
|
36
|
59
|
55
|
|
Tamil Nadu
|
80
|
42
|
50
|
93
|
48
|
87
|
62
|
|
Madhya Pradesh
|
23
|
26
|
61
|
67
|
18
|
32
|
41
|
|
Rajasthan
|
41
|
28
|
59
|
67
|
23
|
37
|
62
|
|
Karnataka
|
66
|
37
|
39
|
91
|
32
|
60
|
57
|
|
Gujarat
|
69
|
53
|
53
|
90
|
38
|
54
|
59
|
|
India
|
43
|
36
|
49
|
67
|
29
|
47
|
53
|
|
Source: Based on
data obtained from Census of India 2011 –Tables on Houses, Household
Amenities and Assets, Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India.
|
||||||||
This lack of adequate sanitation
is responsible for severe health problems. Cholera, dysentery, typhoid,
para-typhoid, infectious hepatitis and many other diseases can be traced to the
unsanitary disposal of human excreta. Lack of sanitation also has grave social
consequences, the need to have ‘night soil’ removed has given rise to the
profession of ‘scavenging’ or collecting it from bucket latrines, the streets
and other locations. Though, this practice has been banned and the Indian
Constitution bans the segregation of those who service this profession, there
are many pockets in the country where the practice continues unabated.
The
census found that Indian households use many different fuels for cooking,
lighting, and heating. The most widely used cooking fuel in the country remains
firewood, used by 49% of households; crop residues are the second most common
cooking fuel, used by 9% of households; cow dung cakes are another important
cooking fuel in the country, used by another 8% of the households. Thus, around 66% of the households
in the country use biomass fuels and 3% use Kerosene as cooking fuel.
Only 28% of the households use LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) as a cooing fuel. All
the 10 major States of the country differ widely in the use of LPG as cooking fuel. Slightly less than half
of households in Tamil Nadu, 43% in Maharashtra, 38% in Gujarat and 36% in
Andhra Pradesh use LPG for cooking. In Bihar only 8% households use LPG. It is observed
that cooking with biomass fuels on open fires causes significant health
problems. An estimated 1.6 million people worldwide die prematurely annually
due to exposure to indoor air pollution.
Access to electricity is a basic
amenity in today’s context. In India, successive five year plans have laid
specific targets for extending the coverage of electricity to households. However,
the progress has been far from satisfactory. As per the 1991 Census, only 42
per cent of households had access to electricity in their homes as against 26
per cent in 1981. Table 1 indicates that 67%
of households have electricity as the main source of lightening in the country
in 2011 while 31% still depend on kerosene. The rural-urban gap is very wide in use of electricity
(55% versus 93%) as source of lighting.
There are large inter-State variations in the availability of
electricity to the households, both in urban and in rural areas. In the better
off States, including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, a
larger proportion of households had access to electricity in 2011. In case of
economically less well-off States and geographically larger States, the
coverage of electricity among the households was low. In case of Bihar, only
16% of the households had access to electricity in 2011. The proportion was
also quite low in Uttar Pradesh. The rural-urban gap in access to electricity
is quite striking. At the national level in 2011, 93% of the urban households
in the country had access to electricity, whereas only 55% of those living in
rural areas had access to this facility.
As regards mode of communication,
less than half of households in India have television while only one in five
households use radios/transistors. Less than 1 out of 10 households have
Computer/laptop with only 3% having internet facility. The penetration of
internet is 8% in urban as compared to less than 1% in rural area. 63% households have Telephone/mobile facility
with 82% in urban and 54% in rural area. The penetration of mobile phone is 59%
and landline is 10%
To sum up, in a telling reminder of the wide chasm
between States and rural and urban areas of India, the latest Census has thrown
up figures that would shock the policy makers. Despite significant improvement
in living standards over the last census, the 2011 figures show a picture that
is far from respectable looking to the high economic growth. About half of total households in India still
defecate in
open. This situation is particularly piquant for women and
girls. Based on the data provided by the
Census 2011, it is estimated that around 290 million women in
India (270 in rural India and 20 million in urban India), the worst sufferers
of open defecation, continue with the age-old practice even after 20 years of
economic reforms.
Further, better living environment or conditions
have
a direct bearing on decision-making power of the women. Table 2 clearly indicates poor
availability of certain household amenities
create obstacles in improving the
decision making power of women including
safe drinking water (Col. 3), inadequate sanitation facilities (Col. 4), availability of smokeless
cooking fuel like LPG (Col. 5), and electricity (Col.
6). Absence of these facilities increases women’s
workload as well as their physical and mental fatigue. Women
spend nearly twice as much time gathering firewood and fetching water as men.
Households in which water is brought from outside spend an average of 103
minutes per day, fetching water, including the time required to wait in line.
Gathering firewood is not necessarily a daily activity but requires longer
trips and households spend an average of 369 minutes per week on this activity,
as per the findings of the India Human
Development Survey. Any improvement in access to
water and LPG is likely to result in a considerable reduction in domestic
drudgery for women, freeing up their time for other activities and enhancing their decision making power. For example, Tamil Nadu with highest proportion of households with some basic
household amenities like piped water, flush latrine, LPG connection and
electricity recorded the highest ranking in terms of decision making power among
the major States of India. And a reverse pattern can be observed in West Bengal
and Rajasthan. In other words, the living conditions are equally
important in empowering the women.
Table 2: Level of women empowerment and
selected variables, some selected States, India
States
|
Level of women empowerment*
|
% of household with:
|
|||
Piped
water
|
Flush
latrines
|
LPG
|
Electricity
|
||
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
Tamil
Nadu
|
49
|
80
|
42
|
48
|
93
|
Maharashtra
|
45
|
70
|
43
|
43
|
84
|
Andhra
Pradesh
|
40
|
70
|
43
|
36
|
92
|
India
|
37
|
43
|
36
|
29
|
67
|
Madhya
Pradesh
|
29
|
23
|
26
|
18
|
67
|
West
Bengal
|
24
|
25
|
33
|
18
|
54
|
Rajasthan
|
23
|
31
|
28
|
23
|
67
|
* % of women who usually make specific four decisions
alone or jointly with their husband: 1. own health, 2. making major household
purchases, 3. making daily household needs and 4. visiting family or
relatives
|
|||||
Source: Based on
data obtained from Census of India 2011 – Tables on Houses, Household
Amenities and Assets, Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India
and National Family Health Survey-3, Mumbai, IIPS, 2007.
|
|||||
There
are many ways to improve the living conditions especially in rural India. One of
the effective measures could be to use the existing Panchayat Raj Institutions
(PPIs). As per 73rd amendment of the
Constitution of India, PRIs are required to be endowed with adequate
responsibilities and powers to enable them to function as the “Institutions of
self-government” at the village level. However, there is no serious involvement
of these local bodies in the management or creation of basic public services
like primary education, public health, safe drinking water and sanitation or in
raising local resources. It is suggested
that the rural employment
guarantee scheme (NREGA), which is responsibility of PPIs, should
be used to improve the basic amenities like water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in rural areas.
(The National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act, initiated by Government of India in 2005, aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas
by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a year to every
household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.) There is
no lack of funds for NREGA, claims the Rural Development Minister, Mr. Jairam Ramesh. Rs 420 billion are available for the
financial year 2012-13 (Press Trust of India, March 18, 2012).
But the big question remains –
will the policy makers acquiesce?
[1]
Srinivasa Rao
Gangadharan and C.A. Yoonus. 2012. Impact of the Economic Reform Programme
on the quality of human life in India,
Journal of Health Management , 14 (20), 182-199.
[2] The survey, which involved 41,554 household interviews
covering 33 states and union territories of India, was designed to be
nationally representative.
For detail, see: Sonalde B. Desai et al. 2010. Human Development in India:
Challenges for a Society in Transition.
New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
[3] Hygiene is four
times as important as clean drinking water for preventing diarrheal disease
according to research published in The Lancet - medical journal.
