For an open-defecation-free India

Water, sanitation, and hygiene are basic needs and rights of people. Unfortunately, seven decades since Independence, India still struggles to ensure equal accessibility to safe drinking water and sanitation to more than half of its population. One of the paramount challenges in achieving ‘Clean India’ target is the country’s reprehensible state of open defecation. According to UNICEF, India has the largest population practising open defecation. Only 48.4% of Indian households have access to sanitation facilities (National Family Health Survey IV).

The lack of proper sanitation facilities has taken its toll on our country. One in ten deaths in India is due to poor sanitation, according to the World Bank as cited in ‘The Economist’ in September 2017. The World Health Organisation estimates that 117,000 Indian children under the age of five died in 2015 from diarrhoeal diseases caused by unimproved sanitation and hygiene. Moreover, women and girls face shame, loss of dignity and safety risk with no toilets at their homes, communities and schools. Dasra’s report “Spot On” indicates that 66% of the girls in India manage their period outside or in an open field due to the absence of a household toilet, while 23% of girls drop out of school for the same reason. Thus, open defecation is a huge challenge in terms of social and cultural sensibilities, behaviours, capacities, resources and governance in India.