Well into the 21st century, more than one in five Indians walk to their work and less than 15% take public transportation. Some 33% use other modes of transport than buses and trains to reach their workplaces situated up to 20 km from their homes. Another 23% walk while 30% don’t stir out of their houses but still work.These figures are based on recently released 2011 Census data on different modes of transport used by workers commuting to workplaces within 20km from their homes. Agricultural workers and domestic helps weren’t considered in the survey. Of the nearly 20 crore workers surveyed, 4.5 crore walked to their workplace.Most of those who work from home are in rural areas. “In urban areas, a large number of people who walk to work are poor. They often walk long distances in spite of inconvenient and dangerous conditions because they cannot afford any other form of transport,” Institute of Transportation and Development Policy regional director Shreya Gadepalli told TOI.Experts see these figures as yet another reason for planners to take into account facilities for pedestrians. “The percentage of women who walk to work is even higher in urban areas. However, wide, continuous and shaded footpaths along with safe and frequent street-level crossings can entice higher-income people too to walk. Good footpaths also encourage the use of public transport,” Shreya said. In rural areas it is mainly lack of access to transport facilities that forces people to walk to work, she said.Only 11.4% of the workers in the country use buses and 3.5% of the workers have access to train, which includes Metro and MRTS in cities like Chennai. After foot and bicycle, the most preferred transport is two-wheelers -- more than 2.5 crore or 12.7% travel to their workplace by two-wheelers. Of this, nearly 75% are in urban areas. Only 2.7% use car, jeep or van and 3% take an autorickshaw or a taxi.“States must concentrate on developing better transport infrastructure in urban areas as a majority of workers are in cities and towns,” said former Anna University urban engineering professor K P Subramanian.There should be better integration of multi-modal transport systems, he said. “In Chennai for example, there are several modes of transport. Within railways, we have suburban, MRTS and MetroRail. But these modes of transport are not integrated. Once integration is sin place, more people will prefer to take public transport like buses or trains,” said Subramanian.Urban authorities should discourage use of cars and other automobiles if there is proper connectivity between all modes of public transport, he said.