Over 1 cr households in urban India without bathrooms: HUPA Ministry

NEW DELHI: Over 1 crore households in urban areas of the country don't have bathrooms, according to data provided by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA).

Under the Centre's flagship programme Swachch Bharat Mission, the government aims to make India open-defecation free (ODF) by 2019.

So far, 31.14 lakh individual toilets have been constructed under the programme, while 1.15 lakh community and public toilets have been constructed with the assistance of the government.

The total number of households in urban areas is about 7.8 crore.

"Nearly 1 crore or about 13 per cent of the total households in urban areas do not have latrine facility -- neither access to public latrine nor do they have toilets within their premises," according to the data provided by the HUPA ministry in Parliament recently.

While 74.64 lakh houses use enclosures without roof, 18 per cent or about 1.42 crore households do not have separate kitchen in their houses.

It indicates that members of these households are exposed to pollution which may lead to severe health problems.

Under a component of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), the households lacking in facilities like kitchen, toilet or bathroom may get central assistance of upto Rs 1.5 lakh for construction of these amenities.