Access to Basic Amenities: Aspects of Caste, Ethnicity, Religion, Livelihood Categories and Poverty in Rural and Urban India during 1993 to 2008-09

Access to basic amenities like drinking water, sanitation, electricity, housing, drainage and others are crucial to the well-being as they contribute to physical and material comfort and quality of life. In the recent years, many international agencies like UNDP, UNESCAP, UN-HABITAT, ADB, World Bank and others have advocated and highlighted the importance of basic amenities for well-being and raising the standards of living. Indian government have also launched several plans and policies for the same in urban and rural areas. The emphasis on the disparities in the access to basic amenities across the economic groups, caste, ethnic and religious groups brings out the issues of exclusion, discrimination and deprivation persisting in the society. This paper has examine the disparities in the access to basic amenities across caste, ethnic, religious and economic groups and also their cross classifications to bring out insightful details for rural and urban India during 1993, 2002 and 2008-09 using NSSO, Household Amenities Surveys unit record data. Findings of this study implies that various policies on basic amenities such drinking water, sanitation, electricity, housing qualities and drainage arrangement needs to be supplemented with pro poor and group specific policies for raising the overall standard of life and well-being.