Fact Check: How true are Congress party’s claims about ODF?
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 6, 2019
The
Congress party made certain claims disputing the BJP government’s declaration
that India is 100% ODF. How true are these claims? Here is a detailed
fact-check.
On 02 October2019, Congress party posted the following two infographics on its social media handles with the caption, ‘Why is the BJP govt
determined to diminish Gandhiji’s ideology of Satya. The only thing honest
about this statement is that India must continue to work on this mission
because we are not Open Defecation Free’.
Why is the BJP govt determined to diminish Gandhiji's ideology of Satya.
The only thing honest about this statement is that India must continue to work on this mission because we are not Open Defecation Free. https://t.co/1qBeI1ast0 pic.twitter.com/BdLMWkXFfI
This post wasuploaded following BJP’s
tweet on 01 October 2019, stating that onMahatma Gandhi’s 150 birth anniversary, the incredible task ofmaking India Open Defecation Free has been achieved. In this story, we factcheck Indian National Congress’s claims by verifying both the infographicsseparately.
Are 7% of the Urban households without water for use in Toilet?
Claim: Lack of water in urban households for toilet purposes has forced more people to defecate in the open. 7% of Urban households are without water for use in toilet. In Uttar Pradesh, this is at 11% and 19% in Jharkhand.
The firstinfographic on urban households claims that 7% of the urban households’ lackwater for use in toilets. In Uttar Pradesh 11% of the urban households do nothave water to be used in toilets while in Jharkhand, the same is at 19%. Thelack of access to water in toilets leads to unclean toilets thereby resultingin open defecation.
The numbers usedby Congress have been taken from the ‘Swachhta Status in India’ report releasedby the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in October 2018. This survey was undertakenby NSSO between July to December, 2017 along with other surveys and released in October2018. As per this report, 18% in Odisha, 17% in Tripura and 16% in West Bengalalso lack water in toilets.
It can also beseen that, as compared to the 72 round of NSS conducted betweenJuly 2014 and June 2015, the percentage of urban households without water intoilets has dropped from 12% to 7% in 2018. Similarly, in each of these states,there has been a reduction in the percentage of urban households without waterin toilets except in West Bengal and Odisha, where this number either increasedor remained the same.
In spite of lackof water as noted above, 99% of the urban population in India who have toilets,avail the facility according to the same report. As per this report, 4% of urbanpopulation in India were not using any kind of toilets during the period ofsurvey. The same proportion was 8% in 2014-15. Thus, a fall in the proportionof urban population not using toilets has reduced by 4% in 2 years. Wateravailability in toilets increased from 88% of households in 2014-15 to 93% in2017.
However, thelatest data on urban households without water facility for toilets is notavailable (for the year 2019). Secondly, the NSSO reports are sample surveysand for the 75 round, the survey covered 7134 units (4043 villagesand 3091 urban blocks) and 71205 households (40338 in rural areas and 30867 inurban areas) at an All-India level. Thus, the claim made by Congress remains UNVERIFIED.
Is
it true that 33% of Rural Indians do not use any type of toilet?
Claim: India is not open defecation free since 33% of rural Indians still do not use any type of toilet.
The data used bythe Congress in the second infographic is also based on the ‘Swachhta Status inIndia’ report released by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in October2018. According to this report, 33% of rural Indians did not use any type oftoilet, be it household or community toilet. Uttar Pradesh had the largestproportion of such rural population, about 58%, who didn’t use toilets. Thepercentages in Bihar and Jharkhand were 53% and 49% respectively. In Odisha,47% of rural population did not use toilets.
However, ascompared to the 72 NSSO round of 2015, the percentage of ruralpopulation that did not use toilets has come down from 52% to 33%. Even inUttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, the percentage has dropped by 8%, 17% and32% respectively. The highest decrease in proportion of rural proportion notusing toilets was witnessed in Chhattisgarh, by 53%. Hence, the possibility offurther decrease in the numbers in second half of 2019 cannot be ruled out.
National
Annual Rural Sanitation Survey  (NARSS) conducted between November 2018 andFebruary 2019 by an independent verification agency revealed that 93.3% ofrural population had access to toilets while 96.5% of the rural people who hadaccess to toilets, used them. The survey was conducted across 6136 villages inIndia with a sample of 92,040 households.
According to the survey, 82.7% of the rural population in India used safe, functional and hygienic toilets. In Bihar, 60.1% of the rural population used toilets and 83.4% in Uttar Pradesh used toilets. In Jharkhand, 64% of people in rural areas used toilets. Since the data presented by NARSS is that of 2018-19, it is more recent unlike NSSO data which was compiled in 2017-18. As of 2019, 100% of rural population has access to toilet as per government’s Swachh Bharat website. Every household using safe technology for disposal of faeces or in other words, 100% usage of toilets is one of the criteria for a village/Gram Sabha to be declared ODF.
At the same time,there have been some independent
sample surveys which dispute thegovernment figures of 100% ODF.
To conclude, the Congress party used 2017-18 data from NSSO while the NARSS report released this year shows better numbers.  At the same time, there have been independent sample surveys which dispute the government’s 100% ODF figure. Thus, it can be concluded that the Congress party’s claim is MISLEADING.
What
is ODF (Open Defecation Free)?
The Swachh
Bharat Mission (SBM) website shows thatthe individual household latrine coverage in India has reached 100%. As per thedata on the website, more than 10 crore toilets were built in India since 2014.Moreover, in the span of five years, the number of districts which had declaredthemselves to be free of Open Defecation increased from mere 5 districts in2015-16 to 699 districts in 2019 as per the SBM website. Sanitation, being astate subject, the responsibility for implementing the mission also lies withthe State governments.
The definitionadopted by the government in June 2015 for ODF is ‘the termination of oral- faecal transmission’ definedby the following two criteria.
Being ODF does notend in gaining the title. The government has also come up with guidelines for ensuring that the practice/trend sustainsby monitoring the villages.
However, it is amatter of debate as noted above whether or not the country is actually free ofopen defecation since it is a behavioural change that takes time to manifestand cannot be concluded with mere numbers which can be easily manipulated. Some independent
sample surveys disputed thegovernment’s numbers.
Number of toiletsconstructed is not always a true reflection of usage. Accessibility to waterfor toilet purposes, maintenance of hygiene and disposal of waste should alsobe considered. The statement that India needs to work on the mission is withoutdoubt, true!