Approximately 68 million Indians are living in slums, according to a government census.
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 today 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 per cent of households live in slums.
"A majority-71 per cent- of these are located in six states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, west Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh," Chandramouli said.
90 per cent of slum households use electricity, 70 per cent slum households have television, 72.7 per cent have telephone facility while 10.4 per cent households have computer or laptop in their house.
Maken said, "In 2001, there were 23.5 per cent of households in urban areas which were living in slums. It has now come down to 17.4 per cent. 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 per cent of these households use tap as the main source of drinking water followed by hand pump ortube which is used by 20.3 per cent.
66 per cent households have toilet facility within the premises, but 18.9 per cent slum households defecate in open and 15.1 per cent 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'.
