A study of household amenities in class I cities of India

Indian urban centres face an ironical situation today. The Census of India provides information about different amenities available in the households. Class I Indian cities grew at a faster pace that contributed more than half of total urban population in many states. A composite index of quality of living was calculated using different household amenities like source of drinking water/lighting/ fuel for cooking, toilet facility and house type. The index was calculated at regional/ state, million/mega city level. Northern region of India had better quality of living. North- eastern region was least urbanized region Western region was well urbanized region. Mumbai despite being most populous Indian city did not have high quality of living index. In million city level analysis, the correlation coefficient is found to be significant and satisfactory indicating the relationship is strong particularly in big cities where populations are diversified. At mega city level except year 1991, other two yield significant relationship between population size and availability of household amenities.Quality of living was not positively related with the population of cities. Quality of living is not commensurate with increasing numbers of million cities. Cities having larger populations did not have good quality of living.