The second Human Development Report 2011, to be released after a gap of 10 years, paints a dismal picture of the access that rural households have to electricity.
The overall coverage of electricity in rural households across the country continues to be low, with around one-third of total households having no access to electricity for domestic use, as per the report prepared by the Institute for Applied Manpower Research under the Planning Commission.
The report is based on the National Sample Survey data of 2008-09. The earlier report was released in 2001.
The situation is particularly bad in the country's ‘cow belt'.
Sample the case of Bihar.
As of 2008-09, that state has just about 25 per cent of rural households which have access to electricity for domestic use. In Jharkhand, it is 43.
In Orissa and Uttar Pradesh, it is 45 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively.
This, when China, way back in 1991 itself, had 94 per cent of rural households having electricity connection.
In totality, percentage of Indian households (both rural and urban) with electricity for domestic use showed a quantum jump from 64 per cent in 2002 to 75 per cent in 2008-09.
The electricity coverage during this period was best in Himachal Pradesh, with 98
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