Chandigarh: Slums may lack basic amenities, but computers, Internet connectivity and cars have made their way into the dingy alleys in Punjab. As per data, as much as 7 per cent of slums have computers/laptops without Internet and 4.3 per cent have computers with Internet in Punjab. Punjab has 14.2 per cent of urban households living in slums while out of 143 towns, 71 have reported slums in 18 districts, as per 2011 census data on slum households for Punjab released by Seema Jain, Director Census, Punjab.
However, SBS Nagar and Barnala districts have not reported any slum. She said it is for the first time that data on housing stock, amenities and assets are being released for slum areas. In Ludhiana, 6 per cent of slum households have computer/laptop with Internet and 8 per cent without Internet followed by Jalandhar wherein 5.7 per cent are having computer/laptop with Internet and 6.6 per cent without Internet.
However, every tenth household in urban areas has computer/laptop with Internet. In Punjab, 7.3 per cent of slum households are in possession of a four wheeler as against 18.1 per cent urban households. One in every ten slum households (9.6 per cent) in Ludhiana is having a four wheeler and the corresponding percentage for Jalandhar and Amritsar is 7.9 per cent and 5.3 per cent respectively, as per official release.
With regard to TV, at least four out of every five slum households have television and this percentage is nearly on par with the urban households at 87.7 per cent. As far as telephone/mobile is concerned, three out of every four slum households have telephone compared with 86.1 per cent in case of total urban households. The percentage is even higher in Jalandhar and Ludhiana at 82.4 per cent and 81.7 per cent respectively, said the data. Moreover, proportion of slum housholds dwellers owning homes is also higher than percentage of houses owned by urban households.
In Punjab, 81 per cent of slum households own houses and in case of urban hosueholds, this percentage is 78.3 per cent. The condition of basic amenities in slum households was also found to be on better side as 96.6 per cent of slum dwellers have power connections while 69.8 per cent and 88.7 per cent have tap water and toilets within premises respectively. As much as 67.8 per cent have LPG connections. Slums have been described as "residential areas where dwellings are unfit for human habitation by reasons of dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty arrangements and design of such buildings, narrowness or faulty arrangement of street, lack of ventilation and light."
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