Homes with toilets in India more than doubled from 38.7% at the start of the Swachh Bharat Mission on October 2, 2014, to 78.98% in March 2018. The grand design is to ensure all households have access to a toilet so that India becomes open defecation free (ODF) by October 2, 2019.
Nationwide data shows that the effort to reach the ODF goal has been tremendous. Since the start of the mission, more than 64.32 million toilets have been built till March 6 this year, according to data tabled in the Lok Sabha in the current session, and 11 states and two Union territories have been declared ODF.
And there’s no slowing down.
A social movement led by women against open defecation has caught momentum, with several women across the country refusing to marry into families with no toilets in states as far apart as Haryana and Telangana.
Read more of this in a report by Sanchita Sharma published in Hindustan Times...
