93 Per Cent Households In Rural India Have Access To Toilets, Says Government Survey

New Delhi: A recent survey commissioned by the government has found that over 93 per cent households in rural India have access to toilets and out of these households, 96.5 per cent uses them. The National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) 2018-19, conducted by an independent verification agency under the supervision of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, also re-confirmed the open defecation free (ODF) status of 90.7 per cent villages which were declared so by various districts and states.  The drinking water and sanitation ministry said,

The survey was conducted between November 2018 and February 2019 and covered 92,040 households in 6,136 villages across States and Union Territories of India.

It was found that 93.1 per cent of households have access to toilets during the survey period and 96.5 per cent of those who had access to toilets, used them, the ministry said.

90.7 per cent villages which were previously declared and verified as ODF were re-confirmed to be ODF. The remaining villages also had sanitation coverage of about 93 per cent. 95.4 per cent of the villages surveyed found to have minimal litter and minimal stagnant water.

Also Read: 9.16 Crore Toilets Built, 5.5 Lakh Villages Declared Open Defecation Free Since 2014: Government

The government said since its launch in October 2014, the Swachh Bharat Mission has changed the behaviour of hundreds of millions of people with respect to toilet access and usage. It added,

500 million people have stopped defecating in the open since the SBM began, down from 550 million at the beginning of the programme to less than 50 million today. Over nine crore toilets have been built across rural India under the Mission. Over 5.5 lakh villages and 615 districts have been declared ODF, along with 30 ODF States and Union Territories.

NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.