REGIONAL VARIATIONS IN THE QUALITY OF LIVING SPACE IN JAMMU & KASHMIR, HIMACHAL PRADESH AND HARYANA

Abstract

A household's quality of life is reflected by facilities such as a light source, safe drinking water, housing assets, a separate kitchen, and a bathroom facility. The often-used Hindi term "Roti, Kapda, Makaan" reflects a man's fundamental necessities and also conveys the average man's viewpoint. Household belongings are both social status symbols and tools for a better living in modern society. Quality of Life is a broad research topic that involves social interactions, work performance, ease of living, housing quality, assets, and civic amenities, as well as "life satisfaction, freedom, functioning, and morbidity." Quality of life is a holistic concept which includes economic, social, demographic and cultural dimensions of human life. A variety of life domains such as housing, health or social relation are included to measure the quality of life (Wolfgang and Hans,1987). In this paper we focused on regional variations in the quality of life in Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana based on representative indicators. The study is based on secondary data on ‘Household amenities and assets’ collected from census of India, 2011. Statistical techniques such composite index have been used to arrive at the quality of living space. For this purpose, statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) has been used. ‘Arc Gis’ technique has been used for mapping. The study shows that there are, of course, striking regional variations on all these indicators that place many parts of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana in extremely depressing living conditions.