Civics Ch 9 Public Facilities

 

Ch 9

PUBLIC FACILITIES

Public facilities

 

v Primary requirements which are necessary for survival are referred as public  facilities.                                                                                       

v like food, water,  shelter,  sanitation, healthcare, electricity ,education  etc 

v The important characteristic of public facilities is that the benefits provided by public facilities can be shared by many people.

v For e.g. A school in a village will enable many children to get education. There are so few cases of private water supply in world as It is more expensive  and  private  companies  only  think  of  their  profits  so people cannot afford it.

v Public facilities provided by the government are health care, water, sanitation, education, roads and railways.

v Public facilities provided by the private companies are schools , hospitals, transportation and health care .

 

The government’s role

 

v The most important function of the government is to insure that public facilities are made available to everyone at affordable prices.

v Providing public facilities to all is the responsibility of the Government as-

v Private companies operate for profit in the market. In most of the public facilities there is no profit to be made.  Thus private companies will probably not interested in undertaking  such work.

v Private companies provide public  facilities  at  prices  that  only  some  people can afford. Hence not available to all at affordable rate.

v Public facilities relate to our basic needs and the Indian Constitution recognises the right to water, heath, education etc

v as being a part of the Right to Life. Thus, one of the major roles of the government is to ensure adequate public facilities for everyone.

 

Location of Private public facilities 

 

v *Most private public facilities (schools and hospitals) are located in major cities not in rural areas because

v *Public facilities provided by private are quite costly which the poor and even middle-class people cannot afford.

v *The rich and ambitious people who can afford to their costs live in cities not in towns or rural areas.

 

Government Funding

 

v The main source of  revenue for the government is the taxes collected from the people such as income tax property tax , sales tax, water tax etc.

v The government is empowered to collect taxes these taxes and use them for such programmes .

 

Need of Clean and safe water

 

v Water is essential for everyone because:

v (i) Safe drinking water is must for good health. Clean and safe water can prevent many water related diseases.

v (ii)  India has one of the largest number of cases of diseases such as Diarrhoea, Cholera, and Dysentery.

v Most of the people die with these diseases. These deaths can be prevented if people have access to safe drinking water.

 

Universal access to water

 

v *Every person rich or poor has the right to get enough amount of water to meet their needs at affordable price. This is known as universal access to water.

v *There should be “Universal access” to water as The  constitution  of  India  recognized  the  right  to  water  as  being  a  part  of right to life under article 21.

v There have been several court cases in which both the High Courts and the Supreme Court have held that the right to safe drinking water is a Fundamental Right.

v The UN statement regarding water was that “right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use”

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Sanitation

 

v Sanitation refers to the measures taken up by the government to protect the public health through proper solid waste disposal, sewage disposal and cleanliness during food processing and preparation.

v  *The sanitation coverage in India is even lower than that of water. Official figures for 2001 show that 68 percent of the households in India have access to drinking water and about 36 percent have access to sanitation (toilet facilities within the premises of residence). Once again, it is the poor both in the rural and urban areas who lack access to sanitation.

 

Sulabh

 

v Sulabh, a non-government organisation, has been working for three decades to address the problems of sanitation facing low-caste, low-income people in India.

v It has constructed more than 7,500 public toilet blocks and 1.2 million private toilets, giving access to sanitation to 10 million people.

v The majority of the users of Sulabh facilities are from the poor working class.

v Sulabh enters into contracts with municipalities or other local authorities to construct toilet blocks with government funds.

v Local authorities provide land and funds for setting up the services, whereas maintenance costs are sometimes financed through user charges (for example, Re 1 is charged for use of the latrines in the cities.

 

Growth of public facilities in India

 

v One of the major roles of the government is to ensure adequate public facilities for everyone. But, progress of public facilities is not satisfactory. There is a great shortage of such facilities

v *it is the poor both in the rural and urban areas who lack access to public facilities.

v *When middle class face such shortages they are able to  cope  through variety of private means. The people who can’t afford to  pay  such  facilities  are deprived of such basic facilities.

v *There is a shortage in supply and there are inequalities in distribution. Compared to the metros and large cities, towns and villages are under-provided.  Compared to wealthy localities, the poorer localities are under-serviced. Handing over these facilities to private companies may not be the answer.