Govt Trashes WaterAid's Dirty Picture Of India's Sanitation

Sanitation has been one of the key focus of the Narendra Modi-led government that came into power in May 2014. The government, that launched the initiative Swachh Bharat Mission, aims to make India open-defecation free (ODF) by 2019. It also plans to achieve this objective by construction of household-owned and community-owned toilets and establishing an accountable mechanism of monitoring toilet use.  Under the Mission, the government also plans to clean up the streets, roads and infrastructure in urban as well as rural areas.

But, if the findings of the WaterAid's report, Out of Order: State Of The World's Toilets 2017, India leads the list of 10 worst countries for access to basic sanitation. According to the report, the number of people in India without access to at least basic sanitation is 7.32 crore or almost 56 per cent of the population.

Here are some key findings of the report by WaterAid that talks about the current state of basic sanitation across the world taking data from the Unicef and the

World Health Organization's Joint Monitoring Programme:

Claiming lives: According to the report, the lack of access to decent toilets and clean water has been a major cause of diarrhoea and related diseases. This, on an average, claims lives of 800 children worldwide every day – one every two minutes. In India, 60,700 children under the age of five die every year from diarrhoea.

Affecting the females: While the nations across the world have committed to put an end to open defecation by 2030 under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and paying special attention to the needs of women and girls, the pace at which this goal is being achieved is slow. Today, one in three women and girls do not have a decent toilet of their own. According to the report, in India more than 35.50 crore women and girls still do not have access to public or private toilets. If all these women and girls were to stand in a queue, it would stretch around the Earth more than four times.

India is progressing: The report also lauds India for the immense progress it is making in improving the access to sanitation across the country under the Swachh Bharat (Clean India) Mission. More than 5.2 crore household toilets have been built between October 2014 and November 2017, the report cites Indian government's data. WaterAid has also contributed to this Mission. In 2016, the organisation helped 1,171,000 people in India get decent toilets.

Also read: Here's How Swachh Bharat Mission Can Become A People's Movement

The improvement: India also made it to the list of best-improved countries for basic sanitation. Ranked at the 10th position, India witnessed a 22.5 per cent rise in the access to basic sanitation between 2000-2015. While 78.3 per cent population of the country did not have access to basic sanitation, this percentage dropped to 55.8 per cent by 2015.

Bringing a change: The country is also among top ten countries that are reducing open defecation and improving access to basic sanitation. According to the report, there has been 26.1 per cent decline in number of people practicing open defecation from 2000 to 2015. While 66 per cent of the population practised open defecation in 2000, this number dropped to 39.8 per cent in 2015.

What does India has to say?

In a recent development, the government called the WaterAid's report as incorrect. According to the officials, the findings of the report extrapolated the data from the period between 2000 and 2015 and missed out the Swachh Bharat Mission. The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation says that the report is factually incurred and would mislead "readers in believing that this is the present status of sanitation in India". The data quoted in the report is from past studies between 2000 and 2015, which means that it has missed out on the progress India has made under the Clean India Mission.

The ministry said that though "The Joint Monitoring Programme of Unicef-WHO in the same report has a special section for Swachh Bharat Mission, stating that its report does not capture a lot of the work done since 2015 and hence data is not up to date, Water Aid has not mentioned it in its report".

According to the data available on the ministry's website, the lack of access to safe sanitation has come down to 28 per cent. According to the report this number stands at 56 per cent.

Moreover, while the report says that more than 35.5 crore women and girls do not have access to a toilet, the ministry numbers have a different story to tell. The data available with the ministry says that by June 2017, the total number of people defecating in the open in India reduced to 35 crores. This number further dropped to 30 crores in November 2017.

Also read: These 5 Factors Can Make Swachh Bharat A Reality