7.5% rural people in State use tap water: Census

--0.1% census houses are used as hospital, while 1% is used as place of worship

--85.9 percent of the households in rural area defecate on open ground

BHUBANESWAR: In the rural areas of the State only 7.5 per cent of the households is using tap water, whereas 38.54 per cent of the households in the rural area are collecting the drinking water in a distance of 500 metre or more from their residence, revealed the Census 2011 data on ‘Houses, Household Amenities and Assets’ which was released by the State Government here on Saturday.

The Census revealed that there is a substantial improvement in the quality of housing both in rural and urban areas.          As per the Houselisting and Housing Census, the census houses in the State increased from 98.73 lakhs to 127.59 lakhs. There is an increase of 18.8 lakhs census houses for residential and partly residential purposes. The data indicates that the housing gap has reduced. There is an improvement in the construction material used for roof, wall and floor.

In our State, 78 percent of Households do not have any Latrine facility. Especially in rural areas, 85.9 percent of the households do not have latrines at all against 35.2 percent in urban area. Only 22.4 per cent of households have source of water within the premises while in rural area 16 per cent and in urban area 56.9 per cent of households are availing the drinking water facility within the premises.

It is interesting to note that 1 per cent of the Census Houses in the State are used as place of worship whereas only 0.8 per cent census houses are used as school and colleges, and 0.1 per cent Census Houses are being used as hospital, dispensary and for medical purpose. 2 per cent Census Houses in the district of Puri and Khurda are being used as places of worship which are the highest in the State. In the district of Gajapati and Kandhamal only 1.6 per cent Census Houses are being used as school and college, revealed the report.

In 2011 Census, 43 per cent households are using electricity against 27 per cent of the last 2001 Census. In rural areas, use of electricity in the households has been increased from 18.8 per cent to 35.56 per cent during 2011 Census. Similarly, in urban areas, use of electricity in the households has been increased from 71.9 per cent to 83.1 per cent during 2011 Census. In electricity usage, Khorda district is the highest of 71.5 per cent households against Nabarangapur’s 12.6 per cent.

According to the Census, only 20 per cent of the households have bathing facility and 19.3 per cent of the households are having drainage facility in the State. Only 63 per cent of the households have kitchen facility for which 65 percent of the households are using firewood as the source of their fuel for their cooking, while 9.8 percent of the households are using LPG as their fuel for cooking.

People of the State seldom use Transistor or Radio which is decreased from 24 percent to 11 percent, whereas the use of Television has been increased from 16 percent to 27 percent of households. The use of Telephone (including Mobile) has been increased from 4 percent to 40 percent of households in the State. 45 percent of the households are availing banking facility in the state.

For communication purpose 61 per cent of the households are using bicycle, whereas 15 percent of the households are using bikes as the source of transport. Only 2 percent of the households are using Car/ Jeep as the source of transport.