About 8.8 million household in India live in urban slums, a survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, says.

The 69th round of the survey, conducted between July and December 2012, estimates that a total of 33,510 slums are present in urban India, of which 41 per cent are notified as slums by the concerned municipalities, corporations, local bodies or development authorities.

While only 41 per cent of the slums have been notified, these accommodate about 63 per cent of all slum-dwelling households.

Not surprisingly, Maharashtra, which is well known for Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, accounts for 23 per cent of all slums in the country. With 13.5 per cent of slums, Andhra Pradesh comes second, followed by West Bengal (12 per cent).

According to the findings, as many as 38 per cent of slum households of urban India are estimated to be living in Maharashtra, and 18 per cent in Andhra Pradesh.

“Of the 19,749 non-notified slums estimated to exist in urban India, Maharashtra accounted for about 29 per cent, West Bengal for about 14 per cent, and Gujarat for about 10 per cent,” said the survey.

The NSSO surveyed 881 slums in a total of 3,832 urban blocks across all States and Union Territories and found that at an all-India level, the average slum size was estimated at 263 households. Under the survey, a slum has been defined as “any compact settlement with a collection of poorly built tenements, mostly of temporary nature, crowded together, usually with inadequate sanitary and drinking water facilities in unhygienic conditions, provided at least 20 households lived there.”

aesha.datta@thehindu.co.in

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