Karnataka is ahead of other states in providing better living conditions to people, according to HS Shashidhar, the director of directorate of census operations, Karnataka. His statement was based on the summary of results of the house-listing operations of Census-2001 in Karnataka.
Various factors like sanitation, size, and number of dwelling rooms, provision of drinking water, lighting, drainage connectivity, source of fuel for cooking, availability of banking services, possession of assets like television, radio, two-wheelers and automobiles have been considered as key parameters in this survey.
According to the houselisting operations of Census 2001 in Karnataka, the number of houses in the state has risen from 10.6 million in 1991 to 13.8 million in 2001, recording a decadal growth of 30.3 per cent.
Of this, about 9 million or 65.1 per cent of the houses are located in rural areas and the remaining 4.8 million or 34.9 per cent are in the urban areas of the state.
Interestingly, there has been a decreasing trend in people utilising their residence for other purposes like office-cum-residence. It has declined from 6.4 per cent in 1991 to 4.1 per cent in 2001, indicating the choice for a house that is used wholly as a residence.
About 4.5 million (44 per cent) respondents in households have reported that they live in a good condition and another 5.2 million (51.2 per cent) households have reported that the house occupied by them are
