I Love My India

This was supposed to be a fun filled and light hearted post. But the CD player thought otherwise. No music for poor little me.Hence no SnG. But thank god for world space radios. They play really good music. But here's something else that caught my eye: these statistics are amazing and force us to look outside our coccooned existence. The reality of India. I might be tempted to feel, not the reality of My India, but theres only one India, and theres only one Reality. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, I am living in that exception- the much celebrated India Middle Class, but we can't ignore the larger reality.

Amenities: free supple means no supply

Relative to their incomes, Indians enjoy fewer basic amenities- drinking water, power, cooking fuel- than they own consumer products. Sixty-two percent of families (that is 118 million households) do not get drinking water at home. About five million families- mostly rural- still fetch drinking water from ponds,tanks,rivers and springs.
Urban India does better though, with 65% of all families living in cities having access to drinking water at home. But the Census tracks only the access, not the duration or the quality of water supplied. Independent estimates show that in most cities water supplies to homes doesn't average more than four hours a day. Besides, much of the water supplied isn't potable.
The problems of water supply are the same that afflict most public utilities in India- underpricing and underprovision. Most Indians don't pay according to use.

• 61 Million (32 %) families draw water from community taps or handpumps.
  
• Over 5 million families still depend on rivers and ponds for drinking water.
  
• 32 million households (17%) don't have a source of water near home.
  
• Over 60% families don't get water at home.
  

Source: India Today, Cover Story, July 28, 2001

Census of India, 2001