Half of Indians Have Mobile Phones, but no Toilets at Home

New Delhi: Half the country's population may not have a toilet at home but they are not without a mobile phone.

Bringing to light this feature of the population, Census 2011 data on houses, household amenities and assets released today said 49.8 per cent Indian households defecate in the open but in sharp contrast, 63.2 per cent households own a telephone connection, 53.2 per cent of them a mobile.

The data reflected the controversial remarks of Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh who said recently that women demand mobile phones but they are not demanding toilets.

According to Census figures released by Union Home Secretary R K Singh, only 46.9 per cent of India's 24.66 crore households have a toilet facility while 49.8 per cent go for open defecation and 3.2 per cent people use public toilets.

Jharkhand tops the list with 77 percent of households having no toilet facilities, followed by 76.6 per cent people in Odisha and 75.8 per cent in Bihar.

Tele-density is the highest in Lakshadweep where 93.6 per cent households own a telephone set, followed by Delhi and Union Territory Chandigarh where 90.8 per cent and 89.2 per cent households respectively own telephone sets.