Skip to main content

Rural Gujarat has one of the lowest proportion of pucca houses, majority "live" in one or two room dwellings

By Our Representative
The latest Sample Registration System (SRS) data, released by the Census of India, have gone a long way to suggest that housing, especially for the poor, remains one of the most neglected sectors in “vibrant” Gujarat. With just about 48.1 per cent pucca houses in Gujarat, the data reveal that this is well below the national average of 52.2 per cent.
While as many as 13 out of 21 major states having a higher proportion of pucca houses in rural areas, the data show that Punjab and Haryana top the list with 92.8 per cent and 91.8 per cent respectively.
Only so-called Bimaru states – Bihar (31.9 per cent), Chhattisgarh (18.9 per cent), Jharkhand (23.2 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (26.1 per cent), Odisha (30.2 per cent) and West Bengal (28.5 per cent) – have lower proportion of pucca houses in rural areas than in Gujarat.
About 29.8 per cent of the houses in the rural areas of Gujarat are semi-pucca, and another 22.4 per cent are kutcha, the SRS report says. This is against the all-India average of 19.8 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively.
What should be equally worrisome to Gujarat’s policy makers is, a whopping 39.9 per cent of Gujarat’s houses are one room, which is against the national average of 33.1 per cent. Only four states have a higher proportion of one room houses – Bihar 44.3 per cent, 41.9 per cent, Tamil Nadu 47 per cent, and West Bengal 42.7 per cent.
Kerala has just 3.5 per cent of one room rural houses, but it has the largest proportion of big houses in India. As against Gujarat’s just 1.2 per cent of houses having five plus rooms, Kerala has some 12.6 per cent such houses. The all-India average on this score is 3.4 per cent.
Further, Kerala’s 27.8 per cent of rural dwelling units have four rooms, as against Gujarat’s just about 3.1 per cent. The all-India average on this score is 6.1 per cent. And, Kerala’s 38.1 per cent rural houses have three rooms, as against just 9.9 per cent in Gujarat; the all-India average being 13.3 per cent
Majority of Gujarat’s rural population appears to be living in two room dwellings – they form 45.1 per cent of the total dwelling units in the rural areas, as against the national average of 43.8 per cent.

Urban housing

The SRS data, however, suggest that, in housing conditions, urban areas are somewhat better than the national average. Thus, 89.9 per cent of houses in urban areas are pucca, as against the national average of 82.2 per cent. Here, too, the best performing states are Punjab and Haryana with 95.2 and 93.2 per cent of pucca dwellings.
However, majority of Gujarat’s urban population lives either in one room or two room houses – 34.6 and 50.1 per cent respectively. This is against the national average of 31.3 and 40 per cent respectively.
There are just two states, both of them more urban that Gujarat – Maharashtra (49.6 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (41.9 per cent) –that have a higher proportion of one-room dwellings.
Gujarat’s just 11.2 per cent of dwellings have three rooms, 3.1 per cent four rooms, and just 1 per cent more than five rooms – as against the national average of 16, 17.4 and 5.1 per cent respectively.

Comments

TRENDING

Avoidable Narmada floods: Modi birthday fete caused long wait for release of dam waters

Counterview Desk  Top advocacy group, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), has accused the Sardar Sarovar dam operators for once again acting in an "unaccountable" manner, bringing "avoidable floods in downstream Gujarat."  In a detailed analysis, SANDRP has said that the water level at the Golden Bridge in Bharuch approached the highest flood level on September 17, 2023, but these "could have been significantly lower and much less disastrous" both for the upstream and downstream areas of the dam, if the authorities had taken action earlier based on available actionable information.

Junk food push causing severe public health crisis of obesity, diabetes in India: Report

By Rajiv Shah  A new report , “The Junk Push: Rising Consumption of Ultra-processed foods in India- Policy, Politics and Reality”, public health experts, consumers groups, lawyers, youth and patient groups, has called upon the Government of India to check the soaring consumption of High Fat Sugar or Salt (HFSS) foods or ultra-processed foods (UPF), popularly called junk food.

From 'Naatu-Naatu' to 'Nipah-Nipah': Dancing to the tune of western pipers?

By Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD*  Some critics have commented that the ecstatic response of most Indians to the Oscar for the racy Indian song, “Naatu-Naatu” from the film, “RRR” reeks of sheer racism, insulting visuals and a colonial hangover. It was perhaps these ingredients that impressed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, one critic says.

Astonishing? Violating its own policy, Barclays 'refinanced' Adani Group's $8 billion bonds

By Rajiv Shah  A new report released by two global NGOs, BankTrack and the Toxic Bonds Network, has claimed to have come up with “a disquieting truth”: that Barclays, a financial heavyweight with a “controversial” track record, is deeply entrenched in a “disturbing” alliance with “the Indian conglomerate and coal miner Adani Group.”

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Savarkar 'criminally betrayed' Netaji and his INA by siding with the British rulers

By Shamsul Islam* RSS-BJP rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fans of Netaji. But Indians must know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and Indian National Army (INA). The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Asset managers hold '2.8 times more equity' in fossil fuel cos than in green investments

By Deepanwita Gita Niyogi*  The world’s largest asset managers are far off track to meet the  2050 net zero commitments , a new study  released by InfluenceMap , a London-based think tank working on climate change and sustainability, says. Released on August 1, the Asset Managers and Climate Change 2023 report by FinanceMap, a work stream of InfluenceMap, finds that the world’s largest asset managers have not improved on their climate performance in the past two years.

'State-sanctioned terror': Stop drone attack on Adivasis, urge over 80 world academics

Counterview Desk  A joint statement, “Indigenous Peoples’ Un-Freedoms and Our Academic Freedom: A Call for Solidarity”, endorsed by over 80 signatories, including international academics, activists and civil society organizations, as well as diasporic Indian academics and researchers, working with Adivasi (indigenous) communities in India, has made an urgent appeal to prevent future drone bomb attacks by the Indian state on Adivasi villages.

Biden urged to warn Modi: US can declare India as worst religious freedom offender

By Our Representative  During a Congressional Briefing held on Capitol Hill, Washington DC, Nadine Maenza, former Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), has wondered why the Biden administration should raise issues of mass anti-minority mob violence  -- particularly in Haryana and Manipur -- with Modi. Modi should be told that if such violence continues, the US will be “compelled by law” to designate India as one of the world’s worst offenders of religious freedom, she urged.