For emergency, hospitalization is the only option. There may be other reasons for hospitalization of people in a country. To understand the major causes for hospitalizations in India, we have used National Sample Survey 71st round data on health which was collected from different geographical regions of the country during January 2014 to June 2014.Data were collected on different issues of hospitalization such as: whether hospitalised during last 365 days: if yes, number of times hospitalized, other information was also taken on sex, age, religion, social group (SC/ST/OBC/Gen) of the individuals/households, type of latrine, drainage system, drinking water source, cooking source etc.

The present paper tries to examine whether difference exists between age, sex, various social groups, religions with number of hospitalized cases. And how do the various latrine facilities, drainage system, drinking water sources, sources of cooking are affecting the number of hospitalizations?

Almost equal numbers of male and female persons were taken in the sample (male 168697, Female 164407). But the number of females hospitalized during the last one year is double than that of males. The chi-square test shows that there is a significant relationship between hospitalization and gender difference. Thus, it appears that women are more vulnerable than men to many of the diseases. There is also some possibility of gender discrimination against females.

Sex, age, education, religion have direct effect on hospitalization. Another important reason is that those people who are using good quality latrine, drainage and cooking sources are more prone to be hospitalized than others. People who are using bottled water, tap water, tube well or hand pump as a source of drinking water are less hospitalized than the rest. So, it reflects the awareness among them.

More researches should be done on household characteristics and its effect on health. Despite the limitations of hospital-based data, this paper gives a reasonable insight of the important causes for hospitalizations in uprising health complexes that may guide the policy-makers in strengthening and prioritizing the health condition in India.