Roofs over India

Dwelling units are defined in the country based on the kind of materials used in construction of houses. The houses constructed are segregated on the lines of Pucca, Katcha and Semi-Pucca. According to the National Sample Survey Organsiation NSSO data of 2006-07 majority of dwelling units are made of Pucca materials both in urban and rural regions.

But the disparity in proportion shows that as compared to 86 per cent of household in urban India only 50 per cent of the population in rural India lives in Pucca houses. The difference in state-wise division of dwelling units in rural India shows, with the exception of Orissa, the rest of rural populace has a majority of units made of Pucca material. In Orissa 48 per cent of its rural side live in Katcha houses followed by Assam with 39 per cent.

The majority of population found in the Semi-Pucca category dwelling units in rural India were 8211; Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal. Since 2001-02, the NSSO data claims that there has been a change of atleast 4 percentage points in rural and urban India in the last three or four years.