A central government survey has punctured the Centre's claim about several districts in the country having become free of open defecation.
Swachh Survekshan, the name of a survey commissioned by the central ministry of drinking water and sanitation and carried out by the Quality Council of India in June-July this year (2016), covered 75 districts marked top performers by the ministry itself.
Its report, released on September 8, says that none of the districts can claim that all its households have access to safe toilets and are using them. Sanitation minister Narendra Singh Tomar had in August told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that 17 districts had declared themselves free of open defecation.
Among the districts making the claim, as shown on the Swachh Bharat website, are Narmada in Gujarat, Ajmer in Rajasthan, Ri Bhoi in Meghalaya, and the Himachal Pradesh district of Lahaul and Spiti.
September 8’s survey report says that only 52 per cent of households in Narmada district have access to toilets and are using them. The corresponding figures are 58 per cent in Lahaul and Spiti, 62 per cent in Ajmer and 78 per cent in Ri Bhoi. Defending the government’s claims, a senior ministry official said the latest survey, being a sample survey, may have failed to give the correct picture.
Since the discovery of only one counterexample is enough to refute a claim of 100 per cent success, however, arguments about sample bias or sample size are irrelevant to such cases. One can, however, cite sample bias to question the specific figures (such as 52 per cent for Narmada) the survey has come up with.
Ironically, it is Sindhudurg in Maharashtra and Mandi in Himachal Pradesh to be the best-performing districts. In both districts, 99 per cent households have been found to be using toilets.
Twenty districts have scores above 90 per cent, including Nadia (97 per cent), Hooghly (97), North 24-Parganas (96) and East Midnapore (95) in Bengal. The minister, Tomar had in his Rajya Sabha statement said that sanitation coverage had increased from 42 per cent in October 2014, when Swachh Bharat was launched, to 53 per cent on July 27 this year.
After releasing the report today, Tomar said the government would use the data to sensitise state governments and boost the drive to free the country of open defecation by October 2019.
The survey also examined whether households were littering their neighbourhoods and whether public places like temples and community centres were clean. It found districts like Panchmahal in Gujarat and Dungarpur and Pali in Rajasthan lagging on all counts. Both these fall in BJP ruled states.
The ministry released separate data on state-wise toilet coverage. It put Sikkim at the top (99 per cent), followed by Himachal (97) and Kerala (96). Bengal scored 77 while Bihar (25), Odisha (33) and Jharkhand (41) brought up the rear.
A survey conducted last year by the National Sample Survey Organisation had found that about 90 per cent of households that have toilets actually use the facility.