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Open defecation continues unabated
Why is it in the news?
- A new research on the impact of the Swachh Bharat Mission in the rural parts of four northern States shows that the percentage of people who owned toilets but continued to defecate in the open has remained unchanged between 2014 and 2018.
- This is despite the open defecation has fallen and toilet ownership has increased.
More in the news
- The study is being released by the research institute for compassionate economics (r.i.c.e.) and the Accountability Initiative of the Centre for Policy Research next week.
- The study indicates that the Mission has been more successful at toilet construction than at driving behaviour change.
- It also shows that approximately 44% of people over two years old in rural Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh still defecate in the open.
- This finding is based on a late 2018 survey, which covered 9812 people in these states.
- The researchers visited the same areas and families which who participated in a similar June 2014 survey which had showed that 70% of people then defecated in the open.
Swachh Bharat Mission's claim
- However, according to the Swachh Bharat Mission, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are already open defecation free or ODF states.
- Bihar has achieved 98.97% coverage of toilets for every household, while Uttar Pradesh has achieved 100%, according to government data, although the state has yet to be declared ODF.
- The new working paper confirms that the Mission has driven toilet construction, although its findings are more modest than government claims.
- Almost 60% of households covered by the survey which did not have a toilet in 2014 had one by 2018, said the study.
Source
The Hindu.