Out of every 100 households in rural areas, 36 lived in pucca (brick and mortar) structures, 43 lived in semi-pucca (semi-bricked) structures, and the remaining 21 in katcha (un-bricked) structures.

These are amongst the findings of an exhaustive nation-wide survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation on housing conditions in India.

Called the 'national sample survey 58' (NSS 58), it is based on a nation-wide household survey carried out by it during July 2002-December 2002 on housing conditions in India. NSS 58 is based on a sample of 97,882 households spread over 4,769 villages and 3,538 urban blocks in the country.

This survey yielded information regarding the conditions of the dwellings in which the rural and urban population of the country live and the number, size, structure, cost and financing of residential constructions undertaken by the households.

Highlights of the NSSO Survey:

• In urban areas, 77 people in every 100 households lived in pucca structures, 20 in semi-pucca structures and only three in katcha structures.
  
• In urban slum areas, 67 per cent of the dwellings were pucca.
  
• Rural areas of Delhi and Haryana, urban slums in Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, and urban areas (excluding the slums and squatter settlements) of Sikkim, Delhi, Uttaranchal, J&K and Gujarat reported the prevalence of more pucca structures than the rest of the country.
  
• The States of Tripura, Manipur and Chattisgarh were found to be well below the national average in terms of prevalence of pucca structures.
  
• The floor area available to the average rural household was 38 square metres while the average urban household had 37 square metres. This survey also reveals that the average household size in rural areas was 5.15 and in urban areas 4.47.
  
• 19 out of every 100 structures in the rural areas and 11 in the urban areas were "in bad condition and required immediate major repair".
  
• 92 per cent of rural households and 60 per cent of urban households owned the dwelling units.

Water and sanitation facilities:

• Nearly 15 per cent of the dwellings in urban slums and squatter settlements, 63 per cent of dwelling units in other urban areas, and 11 per cent of the units in rural areas had facilities of drinking water, toilet facilities and electricity for lighting within their premises.
  
• At the other extreme, none of the three facilities were available within the premises of about 30 per cent of dwelling units in rural areas, 11 per cent of dwelling units in urban slums and squatter settlements, and 4 per cent of dwelling units in other urban areas of the country.
  
• About 97 per cent of rural and 99 per cent of urban dwellings had drinking water within half-a-kilometre of their premises.
  
• Residents of around 76 per cent of rural and 18 per cent of urban dwellings did not have access to any toilet facilities.
  
• In the combined statistics for the rural and urban areas, the percentage of households lacking this facility was the highest in Chhattisgarh (82 per cent), followed by Orissa (80 per cent), Bihar (79 per cent), MP (77 per cent), Jharkhand (76 per cent), Rajasthan (72 per cent ), and UP (72 per cent).

Home extension and new constructions:

• About 25 per cent of all rural households and one in seven urban households had undertaken some form of construction activity during the last five years.
  
• In rural areas, 41 million constructions had been initiated and 34 million completed, while in urban areas, 8.5 million constructions had been initiated and 7.2 million completed during this 5-year period.
  
  • 8 million constructions had been initiated and completed in UP alone, followed by:
    
  • West Bengal (4.8 million),
    
  • Tamil Nadu (4.7 million),
    
  • Andhra Pradesh (4.1 million),
    
  • Maharashtra (3.1 million) and
    
  • Bihar (3.1 million).
• Compared with an earlier NSS survey conducted in 1993 on constructions completed during the 5-year period between 1989 and 1993, this current survey reveals that the number of completed constructions had a doubled.
  
• The number of completed constructions during the 5-year period 1989-93 was only about half the number initiated and completed during 1998-2002 in both rural areas (17.5 million against 34 million) and urban areas (3.6 million against 7.2 million).
  
• Comparison with the earlier survey also shows a fall in the percentage of katcha constructions in rural India from 45 per cent to 40 per cent and a rise in the percentage of pucca constructions from 34 per cent to 38 per cent .
  
• In urban India, there was a fall in katcha constructions from 18 per cent during 1989-93 to 12 per cent during 1998-2002 and a rise in pucca constructions from 64 per cent to 74 per cent.

Construction expenditure patterns:

• On an average, a rural household spent about Rs1.13 lakh to construct a new pucca house with an average floor area of 42sq-m., and about Rs21,000 to alter or repair a pucca structure involving work on 29sq-m of floor area.
  
• Households in urban areas other than the slums, on an average, spent about Rs.2.63 lakh to build a new pucca dwelling unit with an average floor area of 53sq-m.
  
• In urban slums, it cost about Rs80,000 to build a new pucca house with an average floor area was 24sq-m.
  
• About 72 per cent of expenditure on residential construction by households was on materials alone. Another 21 per cent was spent on labour.
  
• Rural households financed around 66 per cent , and urban households, 62 per cent, of their construction costs from their own sources.
  
• In urban slums and squatter settlements, moneylenders financed 15 per cent of all construction costs. However, in other urban areas, moneylenders financed only 4 per cent of the total construction costs. In the rural areas, moneylenders financed 9 per cent of all construction costs.