Gujarat households better off in basic amenities

Apr 1, 2012

Households in Gujarat fare much better than those in other parts of the country as far as amenities such as availability of bathroom, closed drainage and kitchen are concerned, the Census for Household Amenities 2011 shows.

The total number of households in Gujarat was recorded at 1.21 crore, of which bathroom was available in 56.5% houses. As against this, bathroom was available in 42% of the 24.66 crore households in the country.

The number of households in cities such as Ahmedabad (81.9%), Surat (76.4%) and Rajkot (71.6%) was sharply higher than the state's average. Districts in the eastern belt of the state, which have a large tribal population, fared extremely poorly.

"Bathrooms were available in 30.1% households in Banaskantha, 37.7% in Sabarkantha, 35.3% in Kheda, 24.5% in Panchmahals, 12.2% in Dahod,17.2% in Narmada, 13.7% in Dangs and 21.8% in Tapi," the data show.

In 11% households in the state, bathing facility was without a roof as against the national average of 16.4%. 32.6% households in the state were without a bathroom, while the corresponding national figure was 41.6%. Again, many of the tribal-dominated districts fared poorly on all these parameters.

However, the percentage of households in Gujarat without a drainage connection was much higher than the national average.

The data show that 48.9% households in the country had no drainage facility, while the number in the state stood almost five points higher at 53.3%.

However, closed drainage facility was available in 37.3% households in the state - more than double the national average of 18.15%. One-third households in the country had open drainage facility, while the number was less than one out of every 10 households in the state.

The state also fared far better than the country in kitchen availability. Kitchen was available in 61.3% households in the country, while the number stood at 72.3% in the state. There were 31.5% households in the country which did not have a kitchen. As against this, the number of such households was 21.2% in the state. In 6.8% households in the country, cooking was done in the open, while the number was 6.1% in the case of Gujarat. There were 0.3% households in the country where no cooking took place. In Gujarat's case, this number was 0.4%, which could be due to the large migrant population in the state.