More married couples in matrilineal Meghalaya

SHILLONG: With registration of marriages recently been made compulsory in Meghalaya, households in the state, according to the 2011 Census, have registered an increase in the number of "couples".

Revealing this here on Thursday, assistant director, directorate of census operations, B Das Gupta said the state also had the highest fertility rate in the country. On the other hand, 21st century Meghalaya still faces problems of open defecation, accessibility to sources of lighting and potable water although the scenario has marginally improved compared to a decade ago, especially in the field of communication.

In the 2011 Census, the population was recorded at 29,64,007 (14,92,668 males and 14,71,339 females) and the decennial growth rate stood at a staggering 27.82 per cent. The figure was an increase of 645,185 from the 2001 census. A decade ago, Meghalaya's population stood at 2,318,822.

Census data 2011 on houses, household amenities and assets, which were released here on Thursday, highlighted that out of 5,38,299 households in the state, 34.3 per cent still practice open defecation. Out of 4,22,197 homes in rural Meghalaya, the percentage of open defecation stands at 43.1 per cent while the percentage in urban areas, consisting of 1,16,102 households, is 2.4 per cent.

At the same time, the percentage of households not having latrines has marginally decreased from 48.8 per cent in 2001 to 37.1 per cent in 2011. In rural areas, the percentage has declined from 59.9 per cent in 2001 to 46.1 per cent in 2011. In urban areas, the same has come down from 8.4 per cent in 2001 to 4.3 per cent in 2011.

"All seven districts in the state saw a marginal dip in the number of households not having any kind of latrine," the data revealed. As far as lights are concerned, out of 5,38,299 households, 60.9 per cent have the facility - 51.6 per cent in rural and 94.9 per cent in urban areas. In 2001, the percentage of households with electricity was 42.7 per cent out of 4,20,246 households.

At the same time, however, the data revealed that out of 4,22,197 households in the rural segment, the percentage of those not having any source of lighting is 0.9 per cent, which is an increase of 0.1 per cent from the 2001 Census.

In South Garo Hills, the percentage of households with no source of lighting has increased from 0.1 per cent in 2001 to 1.4 per cent in 2011, while in Jaintia Hills, it was from 0.9 per cent in 2001 to 1.3 per cent in 2011. In West Garo Hills, the percentage marginally increased from 0.6 per cent in 2001 to 0.7 per cent in 2011.

In the urban areas (1,16,102 households), the percentage of households without any source of lighting has decreased from 0.5 per cent in 2001 to 0.3 per cent in 2011. As far as accessibility to water is concerned, out of 5,38,299 households, 39.3 per cent had access to tap water, 25.4 per cent to well water while 5.4 per cent found access to hand pumps/tube-well water.

But a worrying factor, as per the data, is the fact that 11.5 per cent of the households were using untreated tap water while 18.4 per cent remained uncovered by well water. However, Meghalaya has improved in the field of transportation with more households across the seven districts in possession of vehicles.

Out of 5,38,299 households, 5.4 per cent were found to have two-wheelers, while an equal percentage had cars, jeeps or vans. In 2001, the range was between 2.7 and 2.9 per cent from among 4,20,246 households.

21st century Meghalaya still faces problems of open defecation, accessibility to sources of lighting and potable water although the scenario has marginally improved compared to a decade ago, especially in the field of communication.