Over 21% rural households lack toilet access despite Modi's open defecation-free claim

Over 21% of rural households said that most of their members had no access to any toilet, a government survey has revealed.

According to the survey, 21.3% of rural households said that the majority of their members had no access to a toilet – whether a latrine exclusively for the household, a common-use facility for the building, or a community toilet.

Released on March 7, the Multiple Indicator Survey by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is the fourth such study in the last five years that challenges the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government’s figure of open defecation-free or ODF status of villages in rural India, reported The Hindu.

Previously, the government’s figures on open defecation-free status were challenged in the National Statistical Office survey from October 2018, the National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey of 2019-’20, and the National Family Health Survey-5 of 2019-’21.

In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had declared rural India as open-defecation free during a Swachh Bharat Diwas programme at the Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad.

Modi had made the declaration by pressing the button of a remote, unveiling the map of India as open-defecation free.

As per the latest survey, the highest number of rural households with no access to any type of toilet was in Jharkhand – 41.3%.

This was followed by households in Odisha (36.4%), Bihar (33.4%), Madhya Pradesh (28.3%), and Rajasthan (28.1%).

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In terms of urban areas, the Multiple Indicator Survey said that no access to any kind of toilets was reported by 2.9% of the households in India.

The highest number of households with no access to any type of toilet in urban areas was reported in Odisha – 19.1%.

This was followed by Jharkhand (8%), Bihar (7%), Madhya Pradesh (5%) and Tamil Nadu (4.5%).