Editorial:Now, Focus on the Left-Out

The socioeconomic indicators for Sikkim, as recorded in the Census 2011 data for household amenities and assets data released recently, show an impressive improvement when compared against the indices recorded ten years earlier in Census 2001. While congratulations are aptly due for the State Government for having ensured such a substantial improvement within a decade, the data also flags sectors which need special attention. While the socioeconomic improvements have been universal, in that the amelioration has been across the board, what remains a worry is that those who have been left out remain cut off from the most of amenities.
To begin with sanitation levels in the State, Sikkim was deservedly the first State to bag the Nirmal Rajya award for the total sanitation it achieved some years ago. There has been a qualitative improvement as well in this sector with 75% of the households now having water closet latrines [with flush] as against 32.1% in 2001. Sikkim is the best performing State on this count, posting the best figures among the States with only the metropolitan union territory of Chandigarh doing better at 87.1%. This is obviously conversion from pit latrines to the better water closet option because the number households with pit latrines has come down from 32.1% in 2001 to 12% now. If one were to focus just on the rural scenario, the numbers remain as impressive for Sikkim. The State, as its Nirmal Rajya award has already testified, tops the listings among State with 68.5% of the rural households having water closet latrines, a huge leap from the merely 24.3% in 2001. Against the 40.6% of the rural households which had no latrines in 2001, the number had come down to 15.9% in 2011. These statistics for urban Sikkim are also the best in the country with 91.8% of the urban households having water closet latrines, 3.3% having pit latrines, and 8.2% having no latrines. The overall figure for Sikkim reveals that against 36.6% of the households in Sikkim had no latrines in 2001, now only 12.8% are so disadvantaged. This is indeed a noteworthy achievement. A rural-urban comparison reveals that the improvements in sanitation levels has been more marked in rural Sikkim where the number of rural households without latrines has come down from 40.6% in 2001 to 15.9% in 2011. For urban Sikkim, the numbers have dropped from 8.2% in 2001 to 4.8% of the households now. When the percentages are converted to numbers, one learns that of the 1,28,131 households in Sikkim, 16,400 households have no latrines. This denial is explained to the large migrant population in Sikkim and the less than adequate tenements available to them [39,208 families in Sikkim live in rented accommodations]. But what needs immediate attention is the worrying fact that only 1,922 households [of the 16,400 without latrines] have access to public toilets. The remaining 14,478 households have to rely on open latrines. And this is a worry. Most of the already underprivileged and denied section of the population here remains left out from access to proper sanitation. It is important that immediate measures are undertaken to expand the footprint of public toilets to ensure that this section of the people receive at least the most basic of amenities.
Another section of the ‘left out’ from the strides made in socioeconomic indicators are the 18.2% of the households here which have none of the “assets” common to the rest of Sikkim. 23,320 households here own neither a radio, nor TV, computer, telephone or a vehicle. This section obviously needs to be prioritised in the release of whatever aids or grants released by the State Government. Admittedly, a substantial number of this group might not qualify to make it to the beneficiaries list, so the least that can be done is extend all civic amenities to them which they deserve by way of their residence in Sikkim. Undoubtedly, the entire lot of households without latrines will fall in this category as well.