Human Development in India - NCAER

62 human development in indiaurban areas (76 minutes). Thus, not only are villagers lesslikely to have indoor water than town and city dwellers,they have to go farther when they do not have it. Whenaveraged over households that have piped water and thosethat do not, the average time spent per household fetchingwater is 53 minutes per day (Table A.5.1a). This is a substantialloss of time that could be used for other purposes.As Box 5.1 documents, this burden is largely borne bywomen.shared toilet, a facility available to only 9 per cent of the ruralhouseholds without a toilet.Although household wealth is associated with accessto piped water and sanitation, contextual factors play aneven greater role. Many of these systems cannot be set upby individuals for their own use. They require a societalinvestment. Hence, even rich households are far less likely tobe able to obtain piped water or a flush toilet if they live invillages or in poorer states (see Box 5.2).Box 5.1Gender and Domestic DrudgeryLack of indoor piped water and clean fuel for cooking affects females disproportionately. The graph in this box suggests that women spendnearly twice as much time gathering firewood and fetching water as men. A similar ratio exists between girls and boys in the time devotedto these activities. Households in which water is brought from outside spend an average of 103 minutes, more than 1.5 hours per day,fetching water, including the time required to wait in line. Gathering firewood is not necessarily a daily activity but requires longer trips andhouseholds spend an average of 369 minutes, or more than 6 hours, per week on this activity. A disproportionately large share of this workrests with women, and any improvement in access to water and kerosene, or LPG is likely to result in a considerable reduction in domesticdrudgery for women, freeing up their time for other activities, including labour force participation.Given past research that has documented substantial participation of young women and men in collecting firewood and water, it issomewhat surprising to see that in this 2005 data, this burden mostly rests with adults. This may be a function of rapidly growing schoolenrolment.Source: IHDS 2004–5 data.Average Time Spent Collecting Water and Firewood for Households (if any) by Sex and AgeThe time spent collecting water takes time away from thehousehold’s quality of life and its productivity. In addition,poor water supply has obvious health costs for both urbanand rural households. Research on health outcomes suggeststhat both the quality and the quantity of water are importantdeterminants of the prevalence of gastrointestinal diseases.This problem is further compounded by lack of access tosanitation. About 58 per cent of Indian households do nothave a toilet, 19 per cent have a pit or some other type oflatrine, and 23 per cent have a flush toilet. The absence oftoilets is particularly stark in rural India, where 72 per centof households have no toilet, compared to 27 per cent inurban areas (Figure 5.3).Moreover, among urban households that do not havea toilet, nearly half are able to use some form of public orFigure 5.3 Availability of Toilet by Place of ResidenceSource: IHDS 2004–5 data.