Tuesday, August 7, 2012

More mobile phones than toilets

 Hello. In lieu of today's class on power and telecommunications, this article came to mind.

- Ranjeet

(excerpts) 
 
 "Nearly half of India's 1.2 billion people have no toilet at home, but more people own a mobile phone, according to the latest census data. Only 46.9% of the 246.6 million households have lavatories while 49.8% defecate in the open. The remaining 3.2% use public toilets. Census 2011 data on houses, household amenities and assets reveal that 63.2% of homes have a telephone."
 
"More than half the population - 53.2% - have a mobile phone."

Source


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1 comment:

Mash said...

Governments provide toilets that have significant creation and O&M (Operations and Maintenance costs). Mobile phones are much cheaper and can be bought through the private market. Is this therefore, on the one hand evidence of private efficiencies triumphing over government procedures? Or, is this an instance where a customized, portable solution triumphs over fixed infrastructure (there will be more toilets than land lines). In the case of the latter, innovative sanitation solutions that are cheap, personalized and portable might therefore be the way to go here.

August 13, 2012 at 9:20 AM

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