Half of Indians defecate in open, but more own a mobile phone: Census

Nearly half of the country's population don't have a bathroom at home and defecate in open places, but more people own a mobile phone.

According to the Census 2011 data on houses, household amenities and assets released on Tuesday, only 46.9% of the India's 24.66 crore households have the latrine facility while 49.8% go for open defecation and 3.2% people use public toilets.

Jharkhand tops the list with 77% of households having no toilet facilities, followed by 76.6%  people in Odisha and 75.8% population in Bihar.

However, 63.2% households own a telephone -- 53.2% of them a mobile phone, according to the figures released by Union Home Secretary RK Singh.

Tele density is the highest in Lakshadweep where 93.6% households own a telephone set, followed by Delhi and Union Territory Chandigarh where 90.8% and 89.2% households respectively own telephone sets.

"Open defecation continues to be a big concern for the country as almost half of the population (49.8%) do it. Cultural and traditional reasons and lack of education were the prime reasons for this unhygienic practice. We have to do a lot in these fronts," Registrar General and Census Commissioner C Chandramouli told reporters here.

Besides, 62.5% rural population continue to use fire-wood as fuel for cooking and 44.8% people's mode of transport is cycle while computer with internet facility has penetrated into country's just 3.1% population.