Increased toilet coverage has little health impact: study
10 years, 5 months ago

Increased toilet coverage has little health impact: study

The Hindu  

Is building toilets improving health in India? In a paper published on Friday morning in the medical journal Lancet, >researchers led by Thomas Clasen of the U.S.-based Emory University found that increased toilet coverage did not lead to any significant improvements in the occurrence of child diarrhoea, prevalence of parasitic worm infections, child stunting or child mortality. For their study, Dr. Clasen and his team looked at 50 villages in Odisha’s Puri district between May 2010 and December 2013, where the then Total Sanitation Campaign to build toilets was in effect, and 50 otherwise similar villages where the campaign had not yet started. One key possible explanation for the absence of a health impact, the researchers said, could be the patchy implementation of the scheme, and uneven rates of use of toilets — at the end of the study period, just 63 per cent of households in the villages where the scheme ran had any toilet, and two-thirds of this group reported a family member using the toilet. Dr. Clasen told The Hindu that his research could not conclusively answer that question, given that the study compared all households, whether compliant or not, in the 50 ‘treatment’ villages with the 50 ‘control’ villages.

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History of this topic

Transforming Rural India: A Decade of the Swachh Bharat Mission
6 months ago

Transforming Rural India: A Decade of the Swachh Bharat Mission

Hindustan Times  

A decade of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) has yielded unprecedented gains in India, with the country achieving a significant milestone of 100% rural sanitation coverage. The mission, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, has transformed India's sanitation landscape, leading to a significant reduction in open defecation and improved public health. The SBM has also had a positive …

Embracing Incremental Steps for Monumental Sanitation Reforms
1 year, 4 months ago

Embracing Incremental Steps for Monumental Sanitation Reforms

News 18  

To understand the role of sanitation on our behavior and lives, it is pertinent to know about the broken window theory. The Bharat story, it’s tryst with building a movement around sanitation through Swachh Bharat Abhiyan stems out as a tale of triumph in the war field of mind and habits. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, initiated by our Honorable Prime …

World Toilet Day: An Occasion To Mark India’s Progress
1 year, 4 months ago

World Toilet Day: An Occasion To Mark India’s Progress

News 18  

The World Toilet Day, marked on November 19 every year, is a significant day for India. This was the state of our affairs that led Shri Narendra Modiji to issue a clarion call for sanitation to become the nation’s foremost priority in his first Independence Day address as the Prime Minister. 130 crore citizens rose up in response to script …

Despite early gains of Swachh Bharat Mission, toilet use declining since 2018-19: World Bank paper
1 year, 5 months ago

Despite early gains of Swachh Bharat Mission, toilet use declining since 2018-19: World Bank paper

The Hindu  

A departmental working paper by the World Bank on the progress of the Swacch Bharat Mission - Gramin has now found that despite “breathtaking” gains made by the programme to bring toilet access to rural India since 2014-15, when it began, there has been a clear trend of regular toilet use declining in rural India from 2018-19 onwards, with the …

42% Urban Indians Believe Availability of Public Toilets Has Improved: Survey - News18
1 year, 5 months ago

42% Urban Indians Believe Availability of Public Toilets Has Improved: Survey - News18

News 18  

As India marks nine years of Swachh Bharat Mission today, 42% urban citizens believe that availability of public toilets has improved since the start of the campaign, according to a LocalCircles survey. ‘30% URBAN INDIANS SEE SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT’ The survey sought to know from citizens: ‘How has the availability of functional public toilets in your district/ city improved in the …

India’s WASH Programs Present Sustainable Development Model for the World
2 years ago

India’s WASH Programs Present Sustainable Development Model for the World

News 18  

Over the past decade, India has witnessed a revolution in the increase and emphasis on social schemes by the Government of India. In response, the Government of India has helmed the world’s largest behaviour change programmes for water, sanitation and hygiene – the Swachh Bharat Mission and the Jal Jeevan Mission –building public infrastructure at an unprecedented scale, at a …

Investing in right education, sanitation helps improve health too: Doctors
2 years, 2 months ago

Investing in right education, sanitation helps improve health too: Doctors

Deccan Chronicle  

HYDERABAD: Year after year, Budget after Budget, successive governments in the country have spoken about healthcare and promised to invest in basic infrastructure but the country has to go a long way to be called a developed nation. Stressing on the importance of efficiently using the spending, Amor Hospital AD, Dr. Kishore B. Reddy said "Every year we hear Governments …

Bombay HC raps Maharashtra government over delay in framing policy on clean toilets in schools
2 years, 6 months ago

Bombay HC raps Maharashtra government over delay in framing policy on clean toilets in schools

India Today  

Bombay High Court on Monday slammed the Maharashtra government over the delay in framing a policy on clean and hygienic toilets in government schools. Based on a report, the court observed that the condition of toilets in schools across Maharashtra was very bad and still there was no policy regarding the issue. As per the court’s order in July this …

Why Most Indians not Using Public Health Facilities is a Matter of Concern
2 years, 8 months ago

Why Most Indians not Using Public Health Facilities is a Matter of Concern

News 18  

Around 70 years ago, when India established its First Primary Health Centre, on the recommendation of the Bhore Committee, the idea was Indians will soon have access to equitable, affordable and quality health care services that are accountable and responsive to their needs. According to the Fifth Round of National Family Health Survey, 2019-21, half of the families in India …

19% households do not use any toilet facility: NFHS survey
2 years, 10 months ago

19% households do not use any toilet facility: NFHS survey

Firstpost  

However, the report said the percentage of households practising open defecation decreased from 39 percent in 2015-16 to 19 per cent in 2019-21 New Delhi: Even though India was declared Open Defecation Free by the government in 2019, the latest NFHS survey conducted in 2019-21 showed that 19 per cent of households do not use any toilet facility. However, the …

Lessons from past sanitation policies for future efforts
3 years, 4 months ago

Lessons from past sanitation policies for future efforts

Live Mint  

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal No. And yet, despite decades of national sanitation policies, data from the fifth National Family Health Survey indicates that India is far from achieving it. It is thus important to understand the evolution of India’s sanitation policies and lessons that will help India frame revised sanitation policies and achieve SDG 6 by 2030. The …

Swachh Bharat toilets alone won't end open defecation; practice persists due to caste norms, drainage woes
4 years ago

Swachh Bharat toilets alone won't end open defecation; practice persists due to caste norms, drainage woes

Firstpost  

In 1986, the Central government had launched the Central Rural Sanitation Programme — the first nationwide programme aimed at dealing with issues related to sanitation. On 2 October, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi proclaimed that “rural India and its villages have declared themselves open defecation-free”, five years after the launch of the Centre’s flagship programme Swachh Bharat Mission. This ultimately …

Survey data again casts doubt over reality of open defecation-free India
4 years, 2 months ago

Survey data again casts doubt over reality of open defecation-free India

Live Mint  

In late 2019, the Narendra Modi government attempted to delay and then discredit an official survey that showed sanitation coverage was far lower than it was claimed. Another major government survey has now confirmed the trend: in five states, over one-third of the rural population still lack exclusive access to ‘improved’ sanitation for their households. By the end of 2020, …

How Covid-19 Has Brought Paradigm Shift in Indian Attitude Towards Hygiene and Sanitation
4 years, 4 months ago

How Covid-19 Has Brought Paradigm Shift in Indian Attitude Towards Hygiene and Sanitation

News 18  

Hygiene and sanitation would never be the same for a post-Covid-19 world, especially for Indians, as the pandemic has caused a fundamental behavioural shift in our attitude towards these. On the other hand, there are those who fear that the presence of chemicals in sanitisers and disinfectants may ensure better hygiene, but may not be good for their family’s health. …

Caste and public health
4 years, 10 months ago

Caste and public health

The Hindu  

INDIA is one of the world’s leading destinations for medical tourism, and yet it ranks abysmally low in terms of child and maternal nutrition in the world. But the limitation of this private health care system is that it has no space for the classical public health concerns, made apparent by COVID-19. The Brahminical elite and neoliberal state have created …

Hyderabad: Poor feel toilets are for the rich – Unicef expert
5 years, 3 months ago

Hyderabad: Poor feel toilets are for the rich – Unicef expert

Deccan Chronicle  

HYDERABAD: Behavioural change among people is important for India to achieve the status of being a country free from open defecation, an issue that continues to be a challenge. Now that 10 crore toilets have been additionally built, along with the earlier six crore of them, people must start using them. Hence the effort in rural areas has been to …

India’s toilet stats raise a stink
5 years, 3 months ago

India’s toilet stats raise a stink

Live Mint  

India’s villages are now officially open defecation free, according to those who were assigned this target: the sanitation department, now subsumed under the Jal Shakti ministry. The 76th NSS round conducted by the National Statistical Organization found that as of September 2018, 28.7% of India’s rural households lacked access to toilets and 32% practised open defecation. In case of the …

Sanitation status: Centre flags likely respondent bias in NSO survey
5 years, 4 months ago

Sanitation status: Centre flags likely respondent bias in NSO survey

The Hindu  

Citing the National Statistical Office’s caveat on the possibility of respondent bias on the issue of access to toilets due to the order of questions asked in its latest survey on sanitation, the Centre has said it is “inappropriate to use the results of this report to draw conclusions on the sanitation status in India”. Respondents were initially asked whether …

Toilet targets: On ending open defecation
5 years, 5 months ago

Toilet targets: On ending open defecation

The Hindu  

India’s declaration on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi that its rural areas are now open defecation-free will be acknowledged around the world as a milestone in its developmental journey. That 110 million toilets were built under this programme since then counts as an achievement in itself, even though many of these structures have been bootstrapped to ramshackle dwellings; …

Experts Question Government’s Claim of India Becoming ODF-Free
5 years, 5 months ago

Experts Question Government’s Claim of India Becoming ODF-Free

The Quint  

CSE director general Sunita Narain said till five years ago, India was home to 60 percent of the world's people who defecated in the open. "If the nation now achieves ODF status, it means a huge leap forward not only for it, but for the world as a whole. It will take the world a long way on its sustainable …

Opinion | Aaj Ki Baat October 2 episode: Modi fulfills one big promise, an open defecation free India
5 years, 5 months ago

Opinion | Aaj Ki Baat October 2 episode: Modi fulfills one big promise, an open defecation free India

India TV News  

More than five years ago, on August 15, 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first address to the nation from the ramparts of historic Red Fort, vowed to fulfill Mahatma Gandhi's dream of a clean India on his 150th birth anniversary in 2019. October 2 this year was, in a sense, a day of celebration for Indian womanhood, as …

Economic Survey: Many states became open defecation free since launch of Swachh Bharat
5 years, 8 months ago

Economic Survey: Many states became open defecation free since launch of Swachh Bharat

The Hindu  

Many states have achieved 100% open defecation free status and individual household latrine coverage since the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission, one of the largest cleanliness drives in the world, the Economic Survey 2018-19 said Thursday. The survey document, tabled in Parliament, said since the launch of the flagship programme in October 2014, over 9.5 crore toilets have been built …

Uptick for India on sanitation in UN report
5 years, 9 months ago

Uptick for India on sanitation in UN report

The Hindu  

India has made great gains in providing basic sanitation facilities since the start of the millennium, accounting for almost two thirds of the 650 million people globally who stopped practising open defecation between 2000 and 2017. “India’s Swachh Bharat mission has been an example and inspiration to other countries, especially in Africa, but also East and South Asia,” said Mr. …

Few central government schemes that helped BJP in coming back to power with a greater mandate
5 years, 10 months ago

Few central government schemes that helped BJP in coming back to power with a greater mandate

Op India  

In a historic win, the BJP clinched a total of 303 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and a total of 353 seats for the BJP led NDA. According to the official government website, since 2nd October 2014 more than 9 crore toilets have been built achieving an overall 99.17% of access to toilets in rural households till date. …

93% of rural households now have access to toilets, over 9 crore toilets built under Swachh Bharat Mission
6 years ago

93% of rural households now have access to toilets, over 9 crore toilets built under Swachh Bharat Mission

Op India  

Under the NDA government’s flagship scheme the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, over 93 percent of rural households in India now have access to toilets out of which around 96.5 percent households have used the facility. A national survey, conducted by an Independent Agency under the World Bank support to #SwachBharatMission, has found that 93.4% of households in rural India who have …

Ladies VROOM
6 years, 1 month ago

Ladies VROOM

Deccan Chronicle  

Lending a hand to the Swachh Bharat initiative, a couple in Pune is providing sanitation solutions for women, with aesthetically designed toilets from scrapped old buses. a The sanitation entrepreneurs have been in the business of providing portable toilets for events and construction sites for the last two decades but this time, the duo wanted to push the envelope further. …

Household sanitation coverage increased at 13 per cent in two years under ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign: WHO
6 years, 4 months ago

Household sanitation coverage increased at 13 per cent in two years under ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign: WHO

India TV News  

The World Health Organization on Sunday said India’s 'Swachh Bharat' campaign is a good example of how countries can make safe sanitation services accessible to all. Household sanitation coverage has increased at a rate of 13 per cent annually between 2016 and 2018 under the 'Swachh Bharat' programme, it said. In recent years, member states have made significant progress and …

Opinion | Making India open defecation free
6 years, 5 months ago

Opinion | Making India open defecation free

Live Mint  

For most of us, going to the toilet is as simple and natural as breathing. India’s sanitation crisis has, however, started to improve drastically ever since the launch of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’. Apart from building more toilets, India needs to address the challenges that prevent it from achieving 100% open defecation free status. No matter how …

'Public participation has improved rural sanitation,' says Narendra Modi on Swachh Bharat Mission
6 years, 5 months ago

'Public participation has improved rural sanitation,' says Narendra Modi on Swachh Bharat Mission

Firstpost  

Narendra Modi addressed the concluding session of the Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention where Sanitation Ministers and other leaders in WASH were in attendance. New Delhi: Political leadership accompanied by public funding, partnership and people’s participation can help the world in achieving total sanitation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday on the occasion of 149th birth anniversary of Mahatma …

WHO acknowledges Swachh Bharat mission, says it could help avert over 3 lakh deaths
6 years, 7 months ago

WHO acknowledges Swachh Bharat mission, says it could help avert over 3 lakh deaths

India TV News  

Acknowledging the Swachh Bharat Mission, World Health Organisation on Saturday said that if India remains committed to achieving 100 per cent coverage in terms of safe sanitation services by October 2019, as many as 3,00,000 deaths caused due to diarrheal disease and protein-energy malnutrition since the country launched the initiative in 2014 can be averted. According to the results tabulated …

From worst performer to best, Uttar Pradesh now aims to achieve ODF status a year before the national target
6 years, 9 months ago

From worst performer to best, Uttar Pradesh now aims to achieve ODF status a year before the national target

Op India  

The government of Uttar Pradesh has seen a massive overhaul in the implementation of schemes and achieving the set targets in various state and central government projects. According to a report in the Economic Times, the state government is now bracing itself to the task of building 20 lakh toilets every month till October 2nd this year. The Uttar Pradesh …

93% rural households with access to toilets use them, reveals national sanitation survey
7 years ago

93% rural households with access to toilets use them, reveals national sanitation survey

Firstpost  

Over 93 percent rural households which have access to toilets are using them and about 77 percent of houses in such areas have got toilets, the government- Over 93 percent of rural households that have access to toilets use them and around 77 percent of houses in such areas have toilets, the government- According to a report in The Times …

Union Budget 2018: 2 crore more toilets to be built, medical reimbursement of Rs 5 lakh per year for 10 crore poor families
7 years, 2 months ago

Union Budget 2018: 2 crore more toilets to be built, medical reimbursement of Rs 5 lakh per year for 10 crore poor families

India TV News  

In a boost to the healthcare sector, the government today announced that two crore more toilets will be constructed under the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’, a flagship programme of the Modi government aimed at cleanliness. “We have constructed six crore toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission, our aim is to build two crore more toilets,” said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while presenting …

Budget 2018: Rural education, health, nutrition urgently require increased funding from Centre
7 years, 2 months ago

Budget 2018: Rural education, health, nutrition urgently require increased funding from Centre

Firstpost  

A look at the past Budgets suggests that while housing, sanitation and rural employment are likely to get a push, the need of the hour is to have a clear strategy and priority for education, health and nutrition On Thursday, the National Democratic Alliance government will present its last full Budget before the next general elections take place in 2019. …

India’s ambitious plans to achieve sanitation for all must look beyond building individual toilets
7 years, 5 months ago

India’s ambitious plans to achieve sanitation for all must look beyond building individual toilets

The Independent  

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Access to sanitation has attracted more attention in India over the past few years thanks …

More toilet talk vital for a cleaner India
7 years, 5 months ago

More toilet talk vital for a cleaner India

Deccan Chronicle  

Meeting sanitation targets is important but targets alone won’t mean much unless the people buy into the messages behind the toilet talk. The Accountability Initiative of the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research notes while building of individual household toilets accounts for the largest share of the Swachchh Bharat Mission’s total expenditure, and has been consistently rising over years, IEC …

Will budget 2017 go beyond insurance to address India’s huge health challenge?
8 years, 2 months ago

Will budget 2017 go beyond insurance to address India’s huge health challenge?

Live Mint  

In an interview to Mint last month, Esther Duflo, one of the world’s leading development economists, said, “I feel a deep sense of crisis when I think about education and health, especially for the poor. These figures are supported by World Bank data which indicates that the share of Out of Pocket expenditure in private health expenditure in India remains …

Could bio-toilets solve India's sanitation problems and save the Yamuna river?
8 years, 4 months ago

Could bio-toilets solve India's sanitation problems and save the Yamuna river?

Business Standard  

Can massive amounts of human excrement be transformed and used to tackle waste management challenges? The switch to bio-toilets in Indian Railways and in low-income urban areas shows that it is possible to make systematic changes in waste management practices. The Swachh Bharat campaign could supplement this change of sentiment by providing information, and possibly even subsidies or tax offsets, …

Most of rural India still opts for open defecation: NSS report
8 years, 11 months ago

Most of rural India still opts for open defecation: NSS report

The Hindu  

More than half the rural population of the country still opts for open defecation, says the recently released Swachhta Status Report by the National Sample Survey Office. The survey estimates that 52.1 per cent of people in rural India choose open defecation compared to 7.5 per cent in urban India. In the survey, 45.3 per cent rural households reported having …

A cry for help in India’s Bihar state: ‘We need a toilet desperately’
9 years, 2 months ago

A cry for help in India’s Bihar state: ‘We need a toilet desperately’

LA Times  

Kaliya Devi awakens at 4 a.m., fills a small bucket with water and walks 10 minutes to farmland outside her village in northern India. “Nothing has happened since then.” Sudha Varghese, the head of Nari Gunjan, said the government approved the toilet project but never provided money it promised for installation. “The administrators should directly deal with the villagers.” It …

Swachh Bharat: World Bank to lend US$1.5 bn to build toilets in India
9 years, 3 months ago

Swachh Bharat: World Bank to lend US$1.5 bn to build toilets in India

India TV News  

New Delhi: The World Bank has approved a loan of US$1.5 billion to help the government in its efforts to provide toilets in villages as part of the Swachh Bharat programme. “One in every 10 deaths in India is linked to poor sanitation,” said Onno Ruhl, World Bank country director for India. Low-income households bear the brunt of poor sanitation …

Vidya Balan on sanitation spree, starts campaigning in UP, Bihar
9 years, 7 months ago

Vidya Balan on sanitation spree, starts campaigning in UP, Bihar

India TV News  

Lucknow: Bollywood actress Vidya Balan, who is the national sanitation brand ambassador, along with with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav flagged off an initiative titled "Changing Behaviour: Creating Sanitation Change Leaders" here on Tuesday. The project, which aims to make 100 villages in the country's most populous state open defecation free, is backed by RB India as part of …

India's trouble with toilets: Government sanitation drives fail to sway those who believe going outdoors is more wholesome
9 years, 7 months ago

India's trouble with toilets: Government sanitation drives fail to sway those who believe going outdoors is more wholesome

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “The government employee who constructed it told me we …

90% of toilet target ahead, 4 years to go- India TV News
9 years, 8 months ago

90% of toilet target ahead, 4 years to go- India TV News

India TV News  

Of more than 110 million rural households without toilets across India in 2012, the government has been able to assist 11 million households in building toilets. That means, nearly 99 million households need toilets over the next four years, if the government is to meet the target set by the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan by October 2, 2019. The Swachh Bharat …

India has made progress in reducing open defecation rates: UN
9 years, 9 months ago

India has made progress in reducing open defecation rates: UN

The Hindu  

India has made “moderate” progress in reducing open defecation rates among its population and has succeeded in providing access to improved drinking water to more people in urban and rural areas, according to a UN report. The Joint Monitoring Programme report titled “Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2015 Update and MDG Assessment” released by the UN Children’s Fund and …

Mission Clean India: Building one latrine at a time
9 years, 9 months ago

Mission Clean India: Building one latrine at a time

Al Jazeera  

About 597 million Indians defecate in public, but a government vow to build new toilets has become a reality for many. “It will be the best way to honour Mahatma Gandhi on the 150th anniversary of his birth,” Modi said in one speech. “After all, the father of India was always clear on the issue.” Modi quoted Gandhi as saying: …

Toilets constructed for 33 lakh rural families:Punjab govt - India TV News
9 years, 9 months ago

Toilets constructed for 33 lakh rural families:Punjab govt - India TV News

India TV News  

Chandigarh : Punjab government today claimed that it has constructed 33 lakh toilets for rural families under the ‘Swacch Bharat Abhiyan,which enlists elimination of open-defecation as one of its objectives. A government spokesperson said the total budget earmarked for this purpose was Rs 937 crore and added that 7.92 lakh families would be covered during the next three years. Punjab …

Accounting for toilets, but no accountability for sanitation
10 years, 1 month ago

Accounting for toilets, but no accountability for sanitation

Live Mint  

The one thing India doesn’t need in the budget is a big financial outlay for sanitation. After all, when the Swachh Bharat Mission was announced late last year, the National Democratic Alliance government committed to spending ₹ 1.34 trillion to build more than 110 million toilets all over India by 2019. That solving India’s sanitation is not merely a project …

Unused rural toilets to face public scrutiny
10 years, 3 months ago

Unused rural toilets to face public scrutiny

The Hindu  

The government proposes to mobilise public support for naming and shaming those not using toilets in rural India. The Ministry on Wednesday said people would be mobilised to check and verify the use of toilets in rural areas and could post photos or upload data through mobile phones or tablets. The monitoring system will give a big push to the …

Behavioural change critical
10 years, 5 months ago

Behavioural change critical

The Hindu  

That high toilet coverage without concomitant utilisation of the facilities at a very high level and washing hands with soap will not bring about a reduction in diarrhoeal episodes and worm infestation, or any improvement in nutrition and growth, has been clearly brought out in a study undertaken in rural Odisha. Eleven of the 50 villages in the intervention arm …

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