Slum households in urban areas decreasing: Study

Maharashtra Tops The List With 38% Of Country’s Share

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

New Delhi: The latest National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) report shows that the number of slum households in urban areas is coming down. The survey, conducted between July and December 2012, projected total slum dwellings at 88 lakh, compared to 1.3 crore households in 2011. 
    The survey findings showed that across the country, 70.8% of households cited better accommodation as the main reason for which they moved out of slum/squatter settlement whereas 11.7% identified proximity to the place of work as the main reason. 
    The report showed that while Maharashtra had the maximum share — 38% of the country’s slums households, Andhra Pradesh had 18%. 
    The sample survey has estimated that there are about 33,510 slums located in urban areas. While 41% of these slum colonies are notified by the local authorities, majority are yet to be notified. 
    The NSSO data projects that most of the slum household have come up in the notified colonies. The NSSO covered 881 slums in a total of 3,832 urban blocks across all states and Union territories and found that at an all-India level, the average slum size was estimated at 263 households. 
    A slum has been defined as “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 unhygienic conditions, provided at least 20 households lived there.” 
    While the survey findings point to how government agencies have a huge task ahead to make these residential blocks livable, it has indicated how the ground situation has improved to some extent with the improvement in power supply, drainage, garbage disposal and other facilities. 
    The report says that 93.5% of slums have power supply and 71% have access to drinking water. Similarly there has been improvement in drainage, sewerage, garbage disposal, primary education and medical facilities ranging between 15% and 45%, compared to what the situation was like five years ago. 
    Pointing to how big the sanitation issue is in the case of rural areas, the NSSO data projects that as many as about 60% rural households do not have access to toilet facilities. 
    However, the record is better when it comes to urban India where only less than 9% of the population still lack the facility.

Source::: The Times of India, 26-12-2013,p.12,  http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2013/12/26&PageLabel=12&EntityId=Ar01200&ViewMode=HTML