81.8% houses have TVs

PUDUCHERRY: The use of televisions in the UT has risen from 33.8 per cent in 2001 to 81.8 per cent in 2011. This is an increase of 48 per cent as per the house listing and housing census released here on Thursday. As per the data released by the Chief secretary M Sathiyavathy, the number of households have increased from 2,08,065 (2001 census) to 3,01,276 in the 2011 census. The data was released in the presence of S Gopalakrishnan, IAS, Director of Census Operations.Regarding amenities available to households, 95 per cent of households were using water from pipelines as a source of drinking water (tap water), whereas 1.9 per cent used, 2.5 per cent used hand pump/tubewell. The population using other sources was 0.3 per cent.About 77 per cent of households had a source of water within their premises while 32 per cent of households had to fetch water from a source located within 500m and one per cent from a source located more than 500 m away in rural areas or 100 m in urban area.According to data available, in all the districts of the UT, more than 90 per cent of the households used electricity to power their lights.As far as the main source of lighting is concerned, 98 per cent households use electricity which shows an increase of 10 percent over the 2001 census. The rural-urban gap has reduced from 10 per cent to 3 per cent.Out the 3,01,276 households, 13.6 per cent were using computer/laptops but only 6 per cent out of the 13.6 per cent had access to the internet. While 63.6 per cent households were availing banking services in Puducherry region of the UT, 82.88 per cent were using banking facilities in Mahe, another region of the UT. As per the data available, Karaikal had 69.32 per cent and Yanam has 40.19 per cent are availing banking services.Sixty-seven per cent of the households were using a water closet and 1 per cent households were still use pit latrine. The use of pit latrine in the UT has come down by 0.8 per cent compared from the previous census.As per data available, two-wheeler usage was 47 per cent while that of  bicycle was 52 per cent. About 1,27,202 houeholds out of the 3,01,276 have one dwelling room, while 15,737 have no dwelling room at all.