68 million Indians living in slums, says census

Approximately 68 million Indians are living in slums, according to a government census.

Approximately 68 million Indians are living in slums, according to a government census.

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Releasing the first such census report on slum households prepared by the Registrar General of India, Union Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Ajay Maken on Thursday said that majority of them were located in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Presenting the highlights of the report, Census Commissioner C Chandramouli said, "In all 1.73 crore census houses have been reported in houselisting blocks, categorised as slums in India, comprising 1.37 crore slum households."

He also noted that in 19 cities with million-plus population, 25% of households live in slums.

"A majority - 71% - of these are located in six states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, west Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh," Chandramouli said.

Ninety per cent of slum households use electricity, 70% slum households have television, 72.7% have telephone facility while 10.4% households have computer or laptop in their house.

Maken said, "In 2001, there were 23.5% of households in urban areas which were living in slums. It has now come down to 17.4%. But there are still 17.35 million slum houses, 13.74 million slum households and we have 68 million people living in the slum areas as 2011 census."

The slum household census report says that 74% of these households use tap as the main source of drinking water followed by hand pump ortube which is used by 20.3%.

66% households have toilet facility within the premises, but 18.9% slum households defecate in open and 15.1% use public facilities, according to the report on 'Housing Stock, Amenities And Assets in Slums Based on House Listing And Housing Census'.

Ten places in the country also claimed to be 'all-slum towns'.