Status and Trends in Provision of Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation in India: Evidence from Census

Abstract

In India, unsafe water, poor sanitation and unhygienic conditions claim the lives of around 0.5 million children annually under the age of 5 years mainly from diarrhoea. The objective of this paper is to assess the level, trend, progress rate differential in accessibility and availability of safe drinking water and basic sanitation facility within premises across the country. Latest census of India, 2011 data on sources of drinking water and toilet facility was utilized to study above mentioned variables. In terms of level of rural-urban differential in access to safe drinking water in the households in India, in 1981, 26.5% households in rural India and 75.1% households in urban India, depicting a huge gap of around 49% point in access to safe drinking water. But, over the period of time this gap has also declined to 26% point in 1991 to only 8.7% point in 2011. It also examines the association between diarrhoea among children under 5 years of age and other variables such as water, sanitation, various socio-economic and demographic characteristics of Indian households. Further, the paper provides critical insights into coverage of basic sanitation and safe drinking water supply. India is “on track” to meet the target on access to safe drinking water with sharp reduction in urban-rural disparities. But so far as sanitation facility is concerned, India is lagging far behind its set targets. The paper recommends intensive mobilization of resources to reduce the vast coverage gap in sanitation in our country.