Rural India became open defecation free in 2019
| Rural India became open defecation free in 2019 | |
|---|---|
| MISLEADING | |
| "Thanks to the Swachh Bharat Mission, all of rural India was free of open defecation by October 2019." | |
| Domain | Health & Medicine |
| Tactic | Statistical & Evidentiary Distortion |
| Era | Current |
| First seen | 2019 |
| Origin | Narendra Modi's speech in Ahmedabad on October 2, 2019, the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's birth |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-30 |
| Further reading: books on Health & Medicine | |
In 2014 Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat (Clean India) Mission, which funded the construction of more than 100 million household toilets. On October 2, 2019, he declared that rural India had become "open defecation free."
The toilet-building drive was large and real. Independent surveys showed that many people still lacked toilets or did not use them.
What the evidence shows
- National survey. The National Statistical Office's survey from July to December 2018 found that about 71 percent of rural households had access to a toilet, leaving roughly 29 percent without one.
- Health survey. The National Family Health Survey for 2019–21 found that about 19 percent of households nationwide reported using no sanitation facility.
- How "free" was declared. Villages were declared open defecation free largely through self-declaration and verification by local officials, which researchers found often overstated coverage.
- Real progress. Researchers, including the Research Institute for Compassionate Economics, found open defecation fell substantially during the program, though it remained common in several states.
Why it matters
The program produced one of the largest sanitation expansions in history. Declaring the job finished overstated it, which risks reducing attention and funding where the problem remains.
Sources
- National Statistical Office, Drinking Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Housing Condition in India, NSS 76th round, November 2019.
- International Institute for Population Sciences, National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 2019–21: India Report, 2022.
- The Hindu, "Is India really open defecation free?" October 2019.