Speaking in Gujarat on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared India “open defecation-free”.
It is time to reflect if rural India is truly open defecation-free and consider having a sanitation policy for those who continue to use the outdoors.
What is the claim?
October 2, 2019, besides being Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, is the fifth, and perhaps final, the anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Mission.
The Swachh Bharat Mission website claims with some documents that the country has achieved 100% coverage of latrine ownership.
What is the true state?
Between 2014 and the end of 2018, latrine ownership in a survey area in Bihar, U.P., Rajasthan and M.P. had increased by 34 percentage points.
Yet, even in states that had already been declared open defecation-free, the actual coverage was far below 100%.
The percentage of people defecating in the open declined by 26 percentage points.
However, close to half still reported being open defecating.
More worryingly, the programme barely managed to bring any change in the behaviour of latrine owners.
Like in 2014, about a quarter of people who own a functional latrine continued to defecate in the open.
Overall, the survey found that 44% of people in these 4 States defecated in the open.
What is the concern?
In the past 5 years, the Indian government has built 100 million toilets.
With a country as large as India, this is a big achievement.
However, the means adopted for achieving this reveal the darker side of the Swachh Bharat Mission achievements.
Hard-working government officials convincing people to build and use a latrine might be half the story.
The mission beneficiaries, as well as government officials at every level, faced immense pressure and threats.
Many rural Indians were threatened with or even denied their legal rights, such as PDS ration, Kisan Credit Cards, for not building a latrine.
Officials resorted to threats of fines and jail terms to intimidate people in some places.
What is the way forward?
With unrealistic targets pushed down from the top, the sanitation policy under the Swachh Bharat Mission had been a coercive one.
The real need now is a ‘non-coercive sanitation policy’ that will address the remaining who openly defecate.
