Status of Social Amenities in Slums of India

B.R.K. Sinha*, Mr. Brijendra Nath Singh,Mr. Prabhakar Nishad *

a

Professor, Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, B.H.U., Varanasi -222105, India.

Research Scholar, Dept. of Geography, Faculty of Science, B.H.U., Varanasi -222105, India.
c
Research Scholar, Dept. of Geography, Faculty of Science, B.H.U., Varanasi- 222105, India.

Sub-Theme: (7)
Abstract
Social amenities are the sources of development and quality of life of the people. It enhances peace,
prosperity, pleasure, satisfaction and well-being as works as a means of welfare of the society. The
main social amenities of the slum population are housing conditions, sources of drinking water,
electricity, cooking fuels, kitchen facility, latrine facility, etc. There has been a faster increase in the
number of slum households over a certain period of time and has put pressure on the demand for
proper social amenities.
This paper attempts to: i) assess the status of existing pattern of social amenities; ii) examine and
illustrate the social amenities oriented programmes run by the government of India in favour of
upgrading slums; and, iii) put forth appropriate suggestion for reducing the problems relating to social
amenities at household level.
The analysis and interpretation of this paper is based on the household level social amenities data
that are gathered from different published sources. The analysis and interpretation is supported by
the statistical and cartographic tools and techniques.
The findings of the study show a clear variation in the spatial pattern of distribution of social
amenities, variation in quality of different types of household level amenities of slum dwellers across
different states of India.
Keywords: Social Amenities, Quality of Life, Welfare, Prosperity, Well-Being.
1. Introduction: Slums are most vulnerable parts of the society. The quality of the life of slum dwellers
in India is very poor. The housing conditions of the slums are not so good for the health point of view.
Lack of the basic amenities is one of the important factors which is responsible various types of
diseases. The status of Slum dwellers in India is varying across the states. The origin of the slum areas
is one of the negative aspects of the development. It is a sensitive and vulnerable part of the society.
Social amenities are the one of the basic need of the human being. Without the social amenities no
one can survive healthy life. It denotes the condition and living standard of the people in the society.
These slum areas are facing no access to social amenities. Irregular and unorganized housing pattern
causes the hazardous condition of living people of slum areas. This paper produces the details account
about the social amenities in the slums of India. This study shows the status of slums and their social
amenities patterns across the different states in India. It also indicates the appropriate suggestion for
reducing the problems relating to social amenities at household level.
Satapathy, (2014) analyses the water, sanitation and hygiene situation in slum households and
compares it with the non-slum urban households using data from the 2011 Census. This article
advocates for a shift from availability of infrastructure to delivery of service-level outcomes. Bipin
Prajapati, et al (2011) have examined that, in the urban slum areas of Bhuj city 49.6% houses are
temporary which are hut types made up of plastic sheets and 5.5% families are having municipal
water connection. Access to drinking water is a major problem in this area. Phukan, D. K. (2014) has
discussed about the basic amenities in the slums of Jorhat City, Assam. Author also fined outs that
ecology of the Jorhat City is being greatly affected by such poor amenities. Besides, such depressed
condition affects their financial aspect. Patel, A., et al. K (2014) have presented that, slums pose a
significant challenge for urban planning, like to provide them shelter. Their analysis highlights
differences in slum profiles measured in terms of both housing deprivation levels and housing
deprivation types in Kolkata and Mumbai cities. Chandramouli, C. (2003, pp. 82-88) concludes that, a
** Tel.:+91-945-184-1995;

E-mail address: sinha_brk@yahoo.co.in

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little more than one fourth of the Chennai population lives in Slums. Slums in Chennai are greatly
disadvantaged as far as quality of housing and availability of basic amenities like drinking water,
electricity, latrines, drainage, non-polluting fuels and the like. H. Tabuldenbok and Kraff, N.J. (2013)
has said that the term slum is difficult to define, but if we see one, we know it. Definitions for slums
are qualitative such as areas of people lacking, for example, durable housing or easy access to safe
water.Author also identified the physical characteristics of slums areas based on quantitative and
measurable parameter.
2. Objectives: Objectives of this study are to:
1. assess the status of existing pattern of social amenities
2. examine and illustrate the social amenities oriented programmes run by the government of
India in favour of upgrading slums; and
3. put forth appropriate suggestion for reducing the problems relating to social amenities at
household level.
3. Database and Methodology: This paper is mainly based on secondary data sources. Secondary data
is collected from the Census of India, 2011. The detailed review of literature consist the different
articles of journals, books and published thesis. In this paper social amenities index is calculated on
the basis of the Z score value. In the calculation of the Z score value both the positive aspect of the
indicators and negative aspect of the indicators relating to social amenities of slum dwellers are
calculated separately. Maps are made of the help of the Arc View software.
4. Analysis and Discussion: The social amenities are one of the key indicators of the development of
any society. It shows the actual situation of the daily life of the slum dwellers. For the good health
conditions there is need to provide the basic social amenities like latrine facility, drinking water
facility, proper drainage facility, source of lighting facility, separate kitchen and good quality of fuels
for cooking food. This paper is based on the different social amenities like availability of drinking
water facility at households level, types of latrine and their location in terms of they are located
whether within the premises or not, types of lightening sources like solar energy, electricity,
kerosene, other oils, uses of cooking fuels like LPG/CNG, cow dung cack, wood, coals, charcoals, grass
etc. Whether, they have the availability of the banking facility. All types of social amenities are
discussed here. Social amenities are varying from state to state. Some states are good in social
amenities but most of the states are poor. Social amenities represent the actual status of the society
and it also indicates the living slandered of the human society. It plays a major role to measure their
living position in society.
4.1 Main Source of Drinking Water and Location: Drinking water is the one of the most important item
of life. Without the pure and healthy water no one can survive. There is scarcity of the pure water on
the earth surface. Drinking water is the one of the important social amenity, which is essential for the
life. Without water no one can survive on the earth surface. The quality of water also matters the
living condition of the people and their slandered of life. The good quality of life maintained the good
health of human being. The supply of the water on the earth surface is not equally distributed; it
varies region to region on world level as well as local level also. In India the water supply in rural and
urban areas also not similar. Source of drinking water and their location is one of the social indicators
which show the status of the area in terms of development. The distribution of the drinking water and
their location varies from state to state. The calculation of the Z scores of drinking water is based on
the on two types of indicator like positive types of indicators and negative type of indicator.

403

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

In this study the positive types of drinking water indicators in the slum areas are- tape water from
treated sources, hand pump, covered well, tube well, and negative types of indicators are untreated
taped water, uncovered wells, springs, canals, tank, pond and other sources.
Figure 1 represents the availability of drinking water within the slum areas of the states and location
of water sources among the states. There are eight state of India having very high, they are Himachal
Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Goa, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar. These states are good to provide the drinking water in the slum areas. There is good provision
to maintain the drinking water in the slum areas. The availability of the water is sufficient in these
types of states. Himachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Uttarakhand are rich in the natural
vegetation and they received the water from spring, tank, ponds, lake and other reservoirs. In the
high index category, there are ten states found, they namely Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal,
Rajasthan, Haryana, Tripura, NCT of Delhi, Gujarat, Assam, Tamil Nadu. In this category the availability
of the drinking water is not as good as class-1 category. But it is better than the third order of the
relative dominance of the states. In the second category of the index the respective states
governments provides the drinking water in the slum areas with very effectively and the availability of
the drinking water through taped treated water is good. The slum areas of these states received
water according to their need. Water management and their distribution are good. In the third index
category is classified as low index category. Eight states of India are belongs to low index category
they are Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, and
Jharkhand, Sikkim. These states are better in the drinking water facility than the fourth order of the
classification index of relative dominance. The slum areas of these states receives drinking water
through both of the sources of water like positive types of sources (tape water from treated sources,
hand pump, covered well, tube well,) and negative types of sources (untreated taped water,
uncovered wells, springs, canals, tank, pond and other sources).
4.2 Availability of Latrine Facility: The second important social amenity is latrine facility. Sanitation
maintained the living conditions of the living organism. Latrine facility is essential part of the daily life.
It also effects the health quality of human being. For a better livelihood, proper sanitation system is
one of the basic requirements. Sanitation is in broad term refers to disposal and management of solid
wastes, wastewater, human and cattle excreta etc. in such a way that it does not adversely affect
domestic personal hygiene. It is important for human health which contributes to clean and improved
environment, social development and generates significant economic benefits. Figure 2 represents
the latrine facility in the slum areas of Indian sates. The availability of the latrine facility is quite
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different in different states. There are large variations among the states. The calculation of Z score
value is based on the two types of data which are the percentage of household having latrine facility
within the having latrine facility within the premises and percentage of households not having latrine
facility within the premises.
The first index category is very high index, there are four states belonging to this category
they are Mizoram, Tripura, Kerala, Nagaland. These states provide the good latrine facility in the slum
areas. The provision for the latrine facility in the slum areas is maintained by the local government.
These states maintained the sanitation and latrine facility in the slum areas as well as urban areas
also. The second category is high index category, in this category there are 13 states they are
Meghalaya, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh,
Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. In this category, the
percentage of household having latrine facility within the premises is very high in respect to
percentage of household having no latrine facility within the premises. This is because of better use of
latrine facility within the household. They used the flush latrine connected to Piped sewer system and
Septic tank. Good latrine facilities within the slum areas are available effectively and maintained by
the respective government. The third category is low index category. In this category there are nine
states belonging this index category they are Rajasthan, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Gujarat,
Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Jharkhand. The high score obtained
by the Rajasthan because the latrine facility within the premises is available in large number of
households. They use latrine in proper way. In this category the lowest score are seen in Jharkhand.In
the Jharkhand the percentage of household having no latrine facility within the premises is very high.
In this index category the most of the slum areas people used the open areas for the latrine. The
fourth category is low index category. There are five states belongs to this category, they are NCT of
Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Chandigarh. The intensity of the slum area in NCT is very
high. So there is lack of latrine facility within the slum areas. Slum people used to open areas for the
latrine. Other states like Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Chandigarh having the percentage of
household having no latrine facility within the premises is very high, so theses states comprise the
very low index. In these states night soil disposed into open drain.
4.3 Main Sources of Lighting in Slums: The sources of lightening also indicate the living slandered of
the people. Rich people of the slum household users the electricity for the lightening, but
economically weaker section of the dwellers uses the traditional sources of lightening. The use of
electivity is good for the health point of view but the traditional sources are not good for the health of
the people. Figure 3 represents the main sources of lightening facility in the slum households of India.
Lightening represents the status of the people and their living slandered. The calculation of the Z
score value is based on the two types of indicators they are positive type indicator and negative type
indicator. Electricity and Solar energy type source of energy considered as positive type of indicator
and Kerosene, Other oil are considered as negative types of indicators, because the harm the
environmental condition of the nature. Kerosene and Other oil emitted the gas, carbon pollutes, and
carbon mono oxide also. It is harmful for the human being. The first index category is very high index.
In this category there are 13 states; they areSikkim, Mizoram, Nagaland, Andaman & Nicobar Islands,
Meghalaya, Goa, NCT of Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala,
Himachal Pradesh. Sikkim is the one of the highest Z score value because of most of the slum
households used the electricity facility for the lightening purpose and Himachal Pradesh is the lowest
Z score value state, it is due to use of kerosene and other oils for the lightening purpose. There are
eight states belong to second index category, they are Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu,
Haryana, Karnataka, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Tripura. In these states the percentages of households
having electricity is highest than the percentage of kerosene and other oils. In the slums of
Maharashtra there are electricity connection provided by the local government authority. The people
of the slum pay for the electric bill. The slum dwellers of Haryana also use the electricity for the
lightening within the houses. In this category Tripura has the lowest z scores value due to use of
kerosene and other traditional source of lightning. There are five sates namely, Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal having the third index category.

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Figure 3
Figure 4
If we talk about the Madhya Pradesh there are the percentage of households having electricity
connection is high than the percentage of using other source of lightening, so in this category it
comprises the highest z score value. In Rajasthan the percentage of households having kerosene is
highest in respect to Madhya Pradesh, so it comprises the lowest z score value. In the west Bengal
the z score value is very low in this category in comparison of other satiates in this classification. The
fourth index category is Very Low, there are five states related to this category they are namely Uttar
Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Assam and Bihar. Slum dwellers of Uttar Pradesh are good in this
category because of the use of electricity facility. Slum dwellers use the electricity faculty for the
lightening in lieu of the other types of the sources of the lightening. The slum dwellers of the
Jharkhand, Odisha, Assam and Bihar use more traditional sources of lighting, so they are poor in this
category.
4.4 Availability of Separate Kitchen and Type of Fuel Used for Cooking: In India the availability of
separate kitchen and type of fuel used for cooking is very different in nature. Kitchen and the types of
cooking fuel effects the living slandered and health condition of the people. Some of the slum areas of
India having the kitchen facility are available but most of the slum areas kitchen facility is not
available. They made their food within the room where they lived with their family members. If we
use the same room for living and kitchen facility it effects the health condition of the slum dwellers.
So many respiratory diseases occurs same place. Figure 4. represent the availability of separate
kitchen and type of fuel used for cooking in the slum households of Indian states. For the calculation
of the Z score values all the indicators are divided into two parts negative types of indicators and
positive types of indicators respectively. The negative types of indicators are fire-wood, crop residue,
cow dung cake, coal/lignite /charcoal, kerosene. These indicators are submerged into negative types
of indicators because using of these types of traditional fuel for cooking destruct the peoples health
and caused different types of respiratory diseases. The use of LPG/PNG, Electricity, and Biogas are
safer than the traditional types of fuels, so it is submerged into positive types of indicators. The first
index category is very high, there are six states namely Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir,
Himachal Pradesh and Kerala belongs to this category. These states having high value of the z scores,
because the households of the slums they uses LPG/PNG, Electricity, and Biogas for the cooking
purpose which is environmentally safe and healthy sources of cooking fuels. It protects the
environment as well as health condition of the people of the slum dwellers.
The second index category is high. Most of the states of India are belonging to this category. There are
13 sates namely Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Tripura, Assam,
Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra. In this
category north eastern states of India like Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Assam, the slum
406

households uses the fuel like LPG/PNG, Electricity, and Biogas for the cooking purpose. The second
order of relative dominance is fire wood which is easily available for the cooking food, so the people
of the slum households uses this types of fuel. There are seven states, namely Uttar Pradesh,
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, NCT of Delhi and Gujarat are belonging to the
third order of the index category, which is low (Z score value is between 00 to -0.05). In this category
the negative value of the indicator are found because the effective use of traditional sources of fuels
for cooking like fire-wood, crop residue, cow dung cake, coal/lignite /charcoal, kerosene. These types
of the fuels are not healthy for the living people. The use of these types of fuel is not good and it
damaged the health condition as well as generates the different types of respiratory diseases among
the slum dwellers. The fourth order of the index category is very low. There are five states belonging
to this category they are namely Jharkhand, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Chandigarh. The
Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha are richer in the mineral resources like coal. There is large level of coal
mines available. The slum dwellers of these states easily receive the coal for the cooking purpose.
Coal is one of the traditional resources for the cooking, it also pollute the environment as well as the
health condition of the people, so they belongs to very low category.
5.5 Households Availing Banking Services: Bank is the one of the major financial institution, which play
major role in the economic activity related to the society. It is one of the social amenities which
reflect the status of the people and living slandered of the human being. People deposit their money
as saving for the future activities. It represents the economic status of the people. Figure 5 represent
the slum households availing banking services in different states. The Z score values are calculated
on the basis of the households having the banking services and number of households not having
banking facility.

Figure 5
The first index category is very high. There are six states having very high z score value, they are
Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Tripura. In these
types of states well banking facility available for the people, so the rate of the banking facility at
households level is very high. There are ten states belonging to high index category, they are
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Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Kerala, West, Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh,
Nagaland, Jharkhand. In these sates the good economic activities found and people are literates so
the value of the z scoreIn the third index category, which is low, there are 12 states namely Haryana,
Uttar Pradesh, NCT of Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Chandigarh,
Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu. In this category, the highest availing the banking facility in
Haryana then Uttar Pradesh and NCT Delhi, Odisha having second, third and fourth position
respectively. In the fourth index category, which is very low, there are found there states they are
namely Puducherry, Karnataka, Gujarat. In these states the availing of banking facility is very low in
respect to the other states like Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman &
Nicobar Islands, Tripura. There is the limited banking facility available in this category.
6. State wise Level of Amenities: This composite index (Figure 6) shows the actual status of the social
amenities in the slums of the relative dominance. This index shows the variation among the states is
varying. There are some states are good in social amenities but most of the states are not in good
position, due to the local conditions of the respective states. There are seven states having the very
high and above, namely Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Mizoram, Jammu &
Kashmir, Goa and Uttarakhand. These states are good in all types of the social amenities discussed
above. These sates received the drinking water from the treated water sources, lightening from the
electricity, they use LPG/CNG gas for cooking, and the availability of the latrine facility is good in
respect to the other states, the banking facility also better than the other states of India. The second
category is high score there are nine sates belonging to this category; they are Andhra Pradesh,
Meghalaya, Tripura, Kerala, Puducherry, Nagaland, Maharashtra, Haryana, and Punjab. The social
amenities in this category are good, but not well as well as first category of relative dominance. This
category comprises the second order of the amenity index. The social amenities are also not so bad in
these states. These states receive the water from the treated water from the tap and covered wells
and they use the electricity for the lightening and use the LPG/CNG for the cooking facility also.

Figure 6
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There are ten states having the low score they are Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Madhya
Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, NCT of Delhi. These
sates use the drinking water from untreated water sources like uncovered wells, ponds, rivers, tank,
handpamps etc. For the cooking purpose they use also LPG/CNG but excessive use of the firewood
and coal are seen here, which is not good for the environment as well as health point of view. They
use Kerosene for the lightening and the large number of households having not latrine facility within
the premises. Because of all of the above factors, these states belong to this low level of index
category. The fourth order of relative dominance is very low level category, there are only four states,
they are Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, Chandigarh. These states are very low in social amenities
like drinking water, latrine facility, lightening facility, banking facility. Due to the less and poor social
amenities in different ways these states having the fourth position. These states also use the drinking
water from the untreated sources like river, tank, ponds, handpumps, uncovered wells etc. They use
traditional methods for the lightening like kerosene and oils. They mostly use open areas for the
latrine. For the cooking they also use the cow dung cack, fire wood, coal, charcoal etc, these sources
of cooking fuels is not so good for the health of the people. In these four sates the social amenities is
not well like the first index of classification.
7. Conclusions and Suggestions: Thus the above suggestion and discussion it is clear that the slum
dwellers conditions in the Indian states are not good. Through the National urban slum development
programme the Upgradation of urban slums may be done by providing physical amenities like water
supply, storm water drains, community bath, widening and pavement of existing lanes, sewer drains,
community latrines and street light etc. There is need to arrange the provision of community
infrastructure and social amenities such as preschool education, non formal education, vaccination,
primary health care, reproductive and child health. Strengthening of health education and family
planning services are required for control of population explosion in the slum areas. This study
provides the details account of the suggestion. With the help of the better implementation of the
plans and policies as well as suggestion also we can solve the poor condition of the households of the
slum dwellers in India. The skills enhancement of the slum people is very essential for the
development of the good human resources in the urban areas of India. They can contribute the
economic activity of the urban areas and plays major role to the development of the urban centers.
The quality of the living standard of the slum dweller and their housing condition is very low. So there
is some suggestion which can improve the housing condition of the slum dwellers and their living
standard. Some of the suggestions are as follows,
There should be proper implementation of plans and policies to reducing the problems
related to the slum households.
There is need to enhance the skills of the slum population to reduce the burden on the
economic activity of the urban areas.
There should be greater equity in the provision of basic services as interstate and intercity
because disparity has acquired alarming proportions.
Small and medium towns, particularly in backward states, should get special assistance from
the central / state government as their economic bases are not strong enough to
generateadequate resources.
As much of the subsidized amenities have gone to high and middle income colonies, the
restructure of these progammes and schemes is needed to ensure that subsides are made
explicit through strict stipulations, targeted through vulnerable sections of population.
A limited number of towns with development potential should be identified in each state and
an attempt should be made to link these with the national and international market.
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