Half of Indians defecate in open, but more own a mobile phone

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Nearly half of the country's population don't have a bathroom at home and defecate in open, but more people own a mobile phone.

According to the Census 2011 data on houses, household amenities and assets released on Tuesday, only 46.9 per cent of the India's 24.66 crore households have the latrine facility while 49.8 per cent go for open defecation and 3.2 per cent people use public toilets.

Jharkhand tops the list with 77 per dent of households having no toilet facilities, followed by 76.6 per cent people in Odisha and 75.8 per cent population in Bihar.

However, 63.2 per cent households own a telephone -- 53.2 per cent of them a mobile phone, according to the figures released by Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh.

Tele density is the highest in Lakshadweep where 93.6 per cent households own a telephone set, followed by Delhi and Union Territory Chandigarh where 90.8 per cent and 89.2 per cent households respectively own telephone sets.

"Open defecation continues to be a big concern for the country as almost half of the population (49.8 per cent) do it. Cultural and traditional reasons and lack of education were the prime reasons for this unhygienic practice. We have to do a lot in these fronts," Registrar General and Census Commissioner C. Chandramouli told reporters here.

Besides, 62.5 per cent rural population continue to use fire-wood as fuel for cooking and 44.8 per cent people's mode of transport is cycle while computer with internet facility has penetrated into country's just 3.1 per cent population.