‘No room’ for many couples

Hyderabad: Surveys show that houses in urban areas of the state measure just about 40 square yards on an average and only about half of them receive daily water.

Interestingly, sample surveys have also showed that only about 55 per cent houses have a separate room for married couples living in the household.

“Considering corres-ponding estimates across rural areas of bigger states, it is observed that Kerala had the highest at 64.01 square metres and Andhra Pradesh had 29.85 square metres (rur-al areas), the lowest average floor area,” a report of the National Sample Survey Office stated.

In urban areas, the average size of houses was only about 40 square yards, slightly higher than in rural areas. The report also said that that only about 55 per cent received daily supply of water in urban areas of AP. Interestingly, the numbers seem to be better in rural areas where, according to the NSSO, almost three quarters of houses received water supply every day.

“It has to be kept in mind while interpreting these results that all these estimates relate to a restricted set of households,” the report said. Only houses which had access to a water source were considered.

Despite efforts to create awareness, hygiene seems to be on the lower side, even in the urban areas of the state, with less than 50 per cent people employing household treatment methods like boiling or filtering.

Next: No separate room for 50% rural couples

No separate room for 50% rural couples

Hyderabad: Health officials and doctors said awareness about basic water treatment methods was being spread since decades but people hardly employed them. Interestingly, the survey by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) found that almost half of all houses were extremely overcrowded so much so that married couples didn’t have a separate bedroom.

Only about 54 per cent of houses in urban Andhra Pradesh had a separate room for couples while it was just about 50 per cent in rural parts of the state. “Overcrowding has various adverse effects to leading a healthy and undisturbed life and hence is considered as an important problem to be addressed by urban planning,” the report said.