25% of rural India's households don't have access to sanitation: NSO survey - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

25% of rural India's households don't have access to sanitation: NSO survey.

• Hand pumps major source of drinking water in rural India, reveals a report by the National Statistical Office
• The report has also highlighted that even after having access to latrines, people are not using them

While a quarter of population still don't have access to sanitation facilities, hand pumps continue to be the major source of drinking water for households in rural areas, a report by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has said.
According to the survey, about 42.9% of the households in the rural areas used hand pump as the principal source of drinking water and about 40.9% of the households in the urban areas used piped water into dwelling as the principal source of drinking water.
“About 48.6% of the households in the rural and about 57.5% in the urban areas had exclusive access to principal source of drinking water. About 87.6% of the households in the rural and about 90.9% in the urban areas had sufficient drinking water throughout the year from the principal source. About 58.2% of the households in the rural and about 80.7% in the urban areas had drinking water facilities within the household premises," the report said.
About 94.5% of the households in the rural and about 97.4% in the urban areas used ‘improved source of drinking water’ viz. bottled water, piped water into dwelling, piped water to yard/plot, piped water from neighbour, public tap/standpipe, tube well, hand pump, protected well, public tanker truck, private tanker truck, protected spring and rainwater collection, he report said adding that about 51.4% of the households in the rural and about 72.0% in the urban areas used improved source of drinking water, sufficiently available throughout the year located in the premises.
The ministry conducted the survey on household social consumption related to Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Condition as a part of 76th round of National Sample Survey (NSS). Data was collected from 1,06,838 households--63,736 in rural areas and 43,102 in urban areas--from 5,378 sample villages in rural areas and 3,614 sample Urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks in urban areas following a scientific survey methodology.
The main objective of the survey was to collect information on facilities of drinking water, sanitation along with housing facilities available to the households and the micro environment surrounding the houses which are important determinants of overall quality of living condition of the people.
“It’s encouraging to see significant increase in access to improved water supply sources and use of toilets by families especially women. Bigger challenges remain on about waste water disposal both in rural and urban areas, which provide ideal breeding ground for insects. Sewer connections are still not available at many urban areas.
Report is a wakeup call for undertaking for design and implementation of appropriate programs and intensified action in areas such as small scale waste water management systems in rural areas," said Dinesh Aggarwal, Technical health advisor, IPE Global.
The survey has revealed that a quarter of rural households still do not have access to sanitation. While about 71.3% of the households in the rural and about 96.2% in the urban areas had access to latrines, the report said adding that there may be respondent bias in the reporting of access to latrine as question on benefits received by the households from government schemes was asked prior to the question on access of households to latrine.
Among the households which had access to latrine, about 94.7% of the males and 95.7% of the females in the rural areas used latrine regularly while about 98.0% of the males and 98.1% of the females in the urban areas used latrine regularly, report said. (Source: Livemint)


The above Article can also be read using the link below:

25% of rural India's households don't have access to sanitation: NSO survey.

Rural housing reaches only 66% target - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Rural housing reaches only 66% target.

States are delaying the allotment of land for landless beneficiaries, says Centre.

With two and a half months to go for the end of this financial year, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Grameen) scheme to provide housing for the rural poor has achieved only 66% of its target to complete one crore houses.

The Ministry of Rural Development still hopes to advance further towards the goal by the deadline of March-end, given that about 15 lakh homes have reached the late stages of construction with roofs ready to be added. Another 11 lakh homes have reached the lintel level, and may be completed in the next few months even if they do not meet the March 31 deadline. The scheme has been successful in reducing the average time of construction from 314 days to 114 days, according to an official statement.
However, there has been little headway made with regard to one bloc of beneficiaries: the landless, who do not possess the land on which to construct the PMAY homes they are entitled to.
In a letter to States dated January 4, the Ministry pointed out that only 12% of the 4.72 lakh identified landless beneficiaries had been provided land for house construction.
Laggard States
According to data provided in the letter, some of the most laggard States as of July 2018 were Maharashtra, which had provided land for only 890 of 1.39 lakh landless beneficiaries and Assam, which had provided land for 574 of 48,283 landless beneficiaries. In Bihar, only 55 out of 5,348 beneficiaries had been allotted land. West Bengal had not allotted land for even a single one of its 34,884 landless beneficiaries. “There are about 2.4 lakh left [to be sanctioned] in Bihar and about 30,000 each in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu,” said a senior official of the Ministry. (Source: The Hindu)


The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Rural housing reaches only 66% target.

Only 23% of rural income from farming, reveals NABARD 2016-17 survey - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Only 23% of rural income from farming, reveals NABARD 2016-17 survey.

According to the survey, whose reference period is 2015-16, the average net monthly income of Indian rural households — after deducting expenses incurred in the course of economic activity — was Rs 8,059.

AGRICULTURE GENERATES not even a quarter of rural household incomes in India. Even for so-called agricultural households, just over 43 per cent of their average income comes from cultivation of crops and rearing of animals, according to the National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development’s (NABARD) All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey 2016-17.

The survey reinforces a trend that has gathered momentum since the start of this century — of an increasingly less ‘Krishi’ in ‘Bharat’. While agriculture may, by definition, be largely rural, the converse, though, isn’t true. The NABARD survey estimates the total number of rural households in India for 2016-17 at 21.17 crore. The definition of “rural” is a broad one, covering revenue villages and semi-urban centres with a population of less than 50,000. Out of the 21.17 crore rural households, 10.07 crore, or under 48 per cent, are “agricultural” — those with at least one member self-employed in farming and reporting annual value of produce at more than Rs 5,000. The remaining 11.10 crore households or 52 per cent are “non-agricultural”.
5,000. The remaining 11.10 crore households or 52 per cent are “non-agricultural”. According to the survey, whose reference period is 2015-16, the average net monthly income of Indian rural households — after deducting expenses incurred in the course of economic activity — was Rs 8,059. The highest share of this (Rs 3,504) was accounted for by wage labour (both farm and non-farm), which was followed by government or private service jobs (Rs 1,906). On the other hand, agriculture — i.e. income from crop cultivation and livestock rearing — contributed only Rs 1,832.
But what’s interesting is that even within “agricultural households”, the share of average income from cultivation and livestock rearing was just over 43 per cent. The balance 57 per cent income in their case, too, was from non-agricultural sources.
The NABARD survey not only reconfirms, but magnifies, the findings of the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households conducted for 2012-13. That survey had estimated agricultural households to constitute 57.8 per cent of all rural households. One reason for the higher share could be that the NSSO’s definition of “rural” did not extend to semi-urban centres with below 50,000 population, which made up 16 per cent of households in the NABARD survey.
In the NSSO survey, 67.2 per cent of the average income of agricultural households came from cultivation and livestock rearing. That share is even lower, at 43.1 per cent, in the recent NABARD survey. The methodological differences notwithstanding, both surveys highlight the same fact — of rural India becoming less agricultural, both in terms of the share of families engaged in farming and a diversification of income sources even in their case.
The NSSO survey reckoned the average monthly net income of agricultural households in India for 2012-13 at Rs 6,426. That figure in the NABARD survey for 2015-16 is Rs 8,931, an increase of 39 per cent over three years. A doubling of incomes would require this to go up to Rs 17,862 by 2021-22, the target date set by the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government. It is significant to note that the doubling is with reference to agricultural household incomes, which could be from both farm and non-farm sources.


The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Only 23% of rural income from farming, reveals NABARD 2016-17 survey.

Sanitation coverage in rural India under Swachh Bharat rises to 85% - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Sanitation coverage in rural India under Swachh Bharat rises to 85%.

Sanitation coverage in rural India, under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the "largest behaviour change programme" in the world, has now risen to 85 per cent, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation said today.

A statement issued by the ministry said that through mobilisation of rural communities, 7.4 crore toilets were built across rural India, and as an outcome, over 3.8 lakh villages and 391 districts were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF).
This is significant because under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen), sanitation coverage has increased to more than double than at the time of launch of the Mission, it said.
"Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the largest behaviour change programme in the world, the rural sanitation coverage of India has now risen to 85 per cent. This success has been achieved due to the difference in approach adopted by the Swachh Bharat Mission in comparison to previous sanitation programmes in the country," the statement added.
The ministry said that a recent survey conducted by an independent verification agency across 90,000 households in over 6,000 villages has found the usage of toilets in rural India to be at 93.4 per cent.
Two independent surveys conducted in the past by the Quality Council of India in 2017, and the National Sample Survey Organization in 2016, had pegged the usage of these toilets at 91 per cent and 95 per cent respectively, it added.
The Swachh Bharat Mission is the first sanitation programme in the country to measure outcomes (ODF) instead of output (toilets) alone. (Source: The Times of India)


The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Sanitation coverage in rural India under Swachh Bharat rises to 85%.