33% of Indians live in less space than US prisoners

One in every three urban Indians lives in homes too cramped to exceed even the minimum requirements of a prison cell in the US. If that sounds shocking, check this out: In the past 50 years, both the number and proportion of Indians living in homes with a per capita space of less than 100 square feet have gone up substantially. In fact, a majority of Indians have per capita space equivalent to or less than a 10 feet x 10 feet room for their living, sleeping, cooking, washing and toilet needs.

These startling statistics emerge from the recently released 63rd round survey of the National Sample Survey Organisation. The data shows 32% of urban houses are 258 sq ft or less in area. Given that urban households have an average size of 4.3 persons, this translates to 60 sq ft per person, the minimum specified for US prisons.

Similarly, 39% of rural houses are 312 sq ft or less. Given the average household strength of 4.8 persons, that works out to 65 sq ft per person ��� just a little more spacious than a cramped American jail.

What's the average size of an Indian house? It's 494 sq ft in rural areas ��� or 103 sq ft per person ��� and 504 sq ft in urban areas, or 117 sq ft per person.

In the past 50 years, both the number and proportion of Indians living in homes with a per capita space of less than 100 sq ft have gone up substantially.

The second planning commission report said 46% of urban and 38.5% of rural households had less than 100 sq ft per head of floor space in 1953-54.

In 2006-07, the year in which the 63rd round survey was conducted by NSSO, 55% of city dwellers and 56% of villagers were living in homes with less than 100 square feet per person.

The data shows that the single largest chunk of houses is in the 322 to 581 sq ft range as 31% of city and 35.3% of rural houses are of that size.

With 807 sq ft as average covered area, urban areas of J&K have the biggest houses in India. Kerala, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Rajasthan have average house sizes ranging between 600-700 sq feet, while Tripura and Andhra Pradesh have the smallest urban houses with less than 400 sq ft of average area.

In rural India, people of Arunachal Pradesh have the biggest houses averaging over 1,000 sq feet while Chhattisgarh and J&K have average house size bigger than 800 sq feet.