23 mn homes in villages still without power, 17% don't have drinking water

The first mobile phone call in India was made in 1995; now, 23 years later, 43,000-odd inhabited villages do not have mobiles services.

Up to 23 million households (in over 292,000 villages) without electricity; 7% (43,000) villages without mobile services; 17% rural habitations without clean drinking water; 25% of 14- to 18-year-olds (nearly 88 million) in rural areas cannot read basic text in own language.

These data reflect those left out of India’s growth story in the country’s rural areas, home to 833 million or 69% of the population, according to various data sets analysed by IndiaSpend.

As India’s economy grew seven-fold over 25 years to Rs 121.9 lakh crore ($1.8 trillion) in 2016-17, moving to the world’s fifth largest over this period, per capita income increased more than four times–from Rs 15,766 to Rs 82,269–during the same period.

Of 640,932 villages in India (597,608 inhabited and 43,324 uninhabited), all inhabited villages have been electrified–according to the government, although this is unverified–but over 23 million households in rural areas are without electricity.

Of more than 219 million rural households, 195 million, or 89%, have been electrified, official data show.

Of 23 million rural households to be electrified, Uttar Pradesh leads the list with over 12 million households, followed by Assam (1.9 million) and Odisha (1.8 million), as on August 22, 2018.

As many as 18,374 Indian villages got electricity over three years to 2018, but in no more than 8%, or 1,425 villages, do all households have electricity, according to the government’s GARV dashboard.

The first mobile phone call in India was made in 1995; now, 23 years later, 43,000-odd inhabited villages do not have mobiles services as on July 27, 2018, according to government data.

Odisha has the most villages (9,940) without mobile services, followed by Maharashtra (6,117) and Madhya Pradesh (5,558).

While mobile phone ownership is increasing, many rural inhabitants still struggle to access electricity for simple daily tasks–such as charging a phone–IndiaSpend reported on May 17, 2018.

Of 1.7 million rural habitations, over 289,000 habitations, or nearly 17%, have only partial access to clean drinking water (getting at least 40 litre per capita per day), according to an August 8, 2018 reply to the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament): and 62,582 habitations have water that is “quality affected” or contaminated.

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