Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of the state of Kerala is a beautiful seaside city built on seven hills. The city is characterized by its undulating terrain of low coastal hills with narrow winding lanes and busy commercial alleys. Thiruvananthapuram and its famous beaches are one of the top tourist destinations in India.

Thiruvananthapuram is an ancient city with tradition dating back to 1000 BC. Thiruvananthapuram became the capital of Travancore in 1750. The city gets its name from the word, Thiru-ananthapuram, meaning the city of Anantha or "the town of Lord ANANTHA", the abode of the sacred Serpent Anantha on which Lord Vishnu, the preserver of the Hindu trinity, reclines. The town has a history of supporting fine arts and culture and as a seat of learning. Travancore was a part of Southern section of Madras Province during British rule.

Thiruvananthapuram attained the status of a City Corporation as early as in 1940.

Thiruvananthapuram was retained as capital of the Travancore- Cochin State in 1948 and later the capital of Kerala State in 1956 after State re-organisation.

The district is located at 8° 17’N and 8° 51’N latitude and 76° 41’E and 77° 17’E longitude. The

city is located at 8°30N and 76°54 E on the west coast near the southern tip of mainland The city situated on the west coast of India is bounded by Lakshadweep Sea to its west and the Western Ghats to its east.

DEMOGRAPHIC DETAILS

The city has a total population of 762535 as per census data 2011 and density of 3549. It is seen that the population size is more in coastal wards towards south of airport, and the size is less in wards located towards city core. The city has a population of around 1.68 million in the urban agglomeration and is the most populous city corporation and the fifth largest urban  agglomeration in Kerala.

The city area has an average density of about 5000 persons per sq. km. On analysing the existing population density variation within the City it is seen that, there is a City core area with an average density of 7500 ppsq.km, a Central City area with an average density of only 4000 ppsq.km and an outer city area with an average density of only 3000 ppsq.km.

As per demographic reports prepared by Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, city population is

986578, slum population is 75623. SC population is 69702 and ST population is 3768.

SEX RATIO

Sex ratio in Thiruvananthapuram Urban city Corporation is 1040 female to 1000 male and

remains below the state average of 1058.

OCCUPATIONAL STRUCTURE

Occupational structure is one of the most important analyses in demographic characteristics

which indicate the sustaining capacity of different economic sectors like primary, secondary and tertiary activities. The work participation rate for the State and Thiruvananthapuram district are almost equal with 32.30% and 32.40% respectively. The percentage of main workers to total workers for Kerala State is 80.10 and that for Thiruvananthapuram District is 78.10, which is slightly less than that of the State. The percentage of other workers to total workers for Kerala State is 73.60% and that of Thiruvananthapuram District is 80%.The work participation rate is more or less similar to that of the State but the percentage of other workers to total workers is above the State average

PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

WATER SUPPLY

Major sources of water supply in the TMC include wells, tube wells, bore wells, municipal connections and local water bodies. Thiruvananthapuram Water supply scheme is one of the oldest Water Supply Schemes in India. This was initially commissioned in 1933 and is widely known as Wellington Water Works. Karamana River is the source of water for the Thiruvananthapuram water supply scheme. The dam at Peppara ensures a steady discharge of water as and when required in to the Aruvikkara reservoir through the river Karamana. The Peppara dam site is located in the reserve forest and has a storage capacity of 70 million cubic metres.

It is estimated that the consumers of Thiruvananthapuram enjoy water consumption @ 174 lpcd.

Water is being supplied through 1, 50,000 odd house service connections, 22,000 non domestic connections, 34 industrial connections and 4260 public stand posts. All the connections, except the stand posts, are metered connections and are being billed according to actual water consumption measured by water meters. The scheme is fully owned and maintained by the Kerala Water Authority, a Government of Kerala undertaking.The present scheme area comprises 183.76 sq. km. with complete coverage of Thiruvananthapuram City (141.74 Sq.km). The scheme also partially covers the adjoining Panchayats viz. Sreekaryam, Kudappanakkunnu and Vattiyoorkavu.

SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

Solid Waste Management (SWM) is one of the most important mandatory functions of the

Urban Local Bodies. The corporation is the only agency involved in solid waste management. About 270 MT of Municipal solid wastes is generated in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation every day. The per capita waste generation is estimated to be 350 g/cap/day. Out of this about 200 tons is collected by the Corporation every day. Domestic waste accounts for more than 50% of the municipal solid waste produced in Thiruvananthapuram. Street sweeping accounts for 18% of the waste. Commercial waste and waste from hotels and markets are also significant. Classification of waste based on its components has not been done.

The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation area can be considered as 3 specific areas with respect

to SWM. The first area includes 25 wards where comprehensive door to door collection is being

carried out under the “Capital City Clean City” (CCCC) project. The second part of the city consists of wards belonging to the old city corporation area which are not included under Capital City Clean City project at present. The third area comprises of wards from the panchayats that had been merged with the Corporation in 2000. A mechanical compost treatment plant was set up and operated by a private operator (Poabs) at Vilappilsala and is now being operated by the Corporation. The plant was set up for an estimated 300 tons of waste every day. The plant is located about 16 km from the city. There is no engineered land fill site in Thiruvananthapuram. There are no recycling plants within the city. The city corporation also does not operate any recycling plant. Waste suitable for recycling are collected from the households and from commercial establishments by private sector agents and transported to centres outside the State. Even though no studies are available on the per capita waste generation trends, there is no doubt that the quantity of waste generated is bound to increase substantially in future.

STREET LIGHTING

Urban roads are generally provided with streetlights of different categories. As per the CES Study (2000), about 80% of major roads in the city are provided with adequate streetlights. Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation maintains the streetlights through Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). Road inventory survey conducted under the PPTA at selected major roads, mostly in the outer- city area, revealed that roads are adequately lit with tubes (45%) and Sodium Vapour Lamps (51%). Average distance between lampposts on major roads was 39 m.

SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE

EDUCATION

Kerala has achieved a high literacy rate of 90.92% as against an all India average of 65.38%.

Literacy rate of Thiruvananthapuram district is 89.22%. 57% of primary school students study in government schools, 21% primary students depends on aided schools and the remaining 22% depend on unaided schools. Adult Literacy Programme is being effectively implemented. Findings from the baseline survey reveal that of the total respondents, there are 12% illiterate women and 8% illiterate men. Majority illiterates are from the poor category.

HEALTH

Kerala has the most extensive medical infrastructure among all states in India. Kerala has the most extensive medical infrastructure among all states in India. In Thiruvananthapuram, apart from the major health institutions in the Government set up like Medical College, Sree Chithra Thirunal Institute of Science and Technology, Regional Cancer Centre, Ayurveda Medical College and Homeo Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram there are a number of private health care institutions which cater to the curative needs of a large number of people from the city and outside.

CREMATION GROUNDS

Providing public cremation grounds within the city is one of the responsibilities of the TMC.

The need for such facility becomes essential when the per capita availability of land in the city gets reduced every year. For a city of 141.74sq.km accommodating a population of 7.44 lakhs (2001), the TMC maintains just 2 cremation grounds – one at Thycaud and the other at Puthenkottah. The TMC has undertaken reconstruction of Thycaud Crematoria, providing three electric furnaces and other allied facilities. The cremation ground at Puthenkottah, perhaps the oldest in the city, still functions without any improvement and is operated with fire wood or coconut husk burning, polluting the densely populated residential area around. A few of the slum areas also have small cremation grounds within the slum area. They do not have walled enclosures, water supply or buffer planting. These can be provided to improve livability in the slum areas.

As per demographic reports prepared by Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, city population is

986578, slum population is 75623. SC population is 69702 and ST population is 3768.