Good news, and bad

Number of slums drops, but rural toilets still a problem

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) has released some data this week from its 69th round of surveys, which included some startling facts. The 69th round, which was conducted in the second half of 2012, revealed a significant decrease in the number of slums in urban India. There were 49,000 slums in urban India in 2009, according to the survey undertaken then. In 2012, there were 33,150 slums - a decrease of over 32 per cent. If true, this is extraordinary. Many have found it hard to believe, but, while the National Sample Survey has well-known flaws, it is difficult to see how this is necessarily one among them in the absence of further evidence. Even if the decrease is not by a third, as the numbers seem to indicate, it certainly suggests the problem of slum living in cities is reducing in magnitude.

How could this be happening? The NSSO defines "slums" as areas that lack a set of basic urban facilities, such as sanitation and drinking water, and which are subject to overcrowding and poor construction of shelters. NSSO officials, when queried about these figures, pointed out that 24 per cent of slums nationwide had been identified as benefiting from various targeted schemes of central and state governments. These include house-building schemes such as the Rajiv Awas Yojana and the urban renewal mission, which some areas have used to enhance the public infrastructure in slums. This seems to suggest that government action has actually had an impact on areas where it is traditionally assumed that the state is ineffective. For example, 95 per cent of urban households reported improved access to drinking water in 2012.

The implications of this fact are considerable. It also indicates that governments - at central, state and even local levels - are beginning to see the importance of those who live in slum areas as more than just areas for electioneering. Clearly, they are important voters now - indeed, the Aam Aadmi Party's strong showing in Delhi elections recently was partly due to its success in reaching out to aspirational residents of slums, according to several observers. The government must build on this success and take it further - see slums, or former slums, as areas of aspiration, entrepreneurship and innovation that must be given facilities and support structures, rather than as eyesores to be removed.

Part of the reason that fewer areas are slums, surely, is that sanitation may have improved in urban areas. Certainly, the 69th round of the NSS also found that less than nine per cent of urban households had no access to a latrine. However, 62 per cent of urban households had exclusive use of a latrine facility of some sort; the rest, presumably, had to share. Even so, this is a relative improvement. Sadly, rural India is still a disaster when it comes to sanitation and open defecation. Almost 60 per cent of rural households had no access to a latrine at all. This is a reminder of the sustained failure of the Indian state to make rural sanitation a priority. The health outcomes of this alone are disastrous. Open defecation in an area contaminates the water supply and causes diseases. This can lead to the symptoms of malnutrition, including stunting, as well as loss of work and the corresponding fall into destitution. Much has been achieved, but more remains to be done.