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Abstract
Access to basic amenities like drinking water, sanitation, electricity, drainage, etc. are crucial to the human well-being because they contributes to physical and material comfort and quality of life. There are plenty of studies suggested that the better availability and accessibility of basic amenities not only provide better health conditions, but also increase the overall efficiency of the population, wellbeing of the people and the overall enrollment ratio in the schools. This paper focuses on the distribution of different basic amenities at the district level which are considered as the most important aspects of the quality of urbanization, particularly in the modern era where the whole issue of development is redefined. Development is seen as a process of providing basic services to remove obstacles and also to give freedom from all sorts of discrimination. Census of India data has been used for this study from 1991 to 2011 census i.e. data from District Census Handbook and All India Town Directory, Punjab. It has been found that the districts with high proportion of urban population are better served with provision of basic civic services; it may be due to higher levels of investments. On the other hand districts with low urban population are still behind in attracting basic amenities like safe drinking water, safe cooking fuel, hygienic toilet and drainage facilities, etc. This paper will also help the government and policy makers, urban planners by emphasizing on equal accessibility and distribution of basic amenities across all regions to promote sustainable development.