Guwahati, Oct 11 : The Registrar General of India has recorded the state's slum population at 1,97,266 - the highest in the northeastern region - while Manipur has been reported as a total slum-free state.
The slum population in the state accounts for 0.63 per cent of the total population of 3,12,05,576 crore, according to a Census report on slums for 2011, which was published recently. Significantly, Arunachal Pradesh, which did not have any slums in the 2001 Census, has recorded slums in the 2011 Census.
Manipur, along with Daman & Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep have not reported any slums in 2011 Census, in which the national slum population is 6,54,94,604.
After the state, the next highest slum population in the region is 1,39,780 in Tripura, followed by 82,324 in Nagaland, 78,561 in Mizoram, 57,418 in Meghalaya and 15,562 in Arunachal Pradesh.
According to the Census report, Assam has 88 towns, of which 33 towns have slum dwellers. In Tripura, 15 of the 16 towns have slum dwellers. Mizoram has 23 towns and only one of them has slums while 11 of 19 towns in Nagaland have slum people. According to the report, the country has 2,613 slum towns in all.
The report also shows that Tripura has the fifth highest population of scheduled caste slum dwellers in the country. Mizoram has the lowest SC population in the country living in slums, but it has the highest scheduled tribe population living in slums in India.
According to the report, Mizoram's slum population has the highest literacy rate (98.1 per cent) in the country followed by Tripura (90.7%) in the third place, Meghalaya (89%) in fourth place and Nagaland (88.8%) in fifth place.