Sanitation in India has come a long way from being no one’s priority to a politically salient issue
Our politicians are finally talking toilets. From former minister Jairam Ramesh’s infamous statement that India needed more toilets than temples to becoming a campaign issue in the recent elections, sanitation in India has come a long way from being no one’s priority to a politically salient issue. On becoming Prime Minister, Narendra Modi was quick to commit his government to launching the "Swachh Bharat Mission" and building 200,000 toilets across India’s villages.
But even as politicians have begun to take sanitation seriously, India faces the enormous risk of investing its money and political capital in the wrong problem.
A widely held myth about sanitation, mirrored in the political rhetoric, is that lack of sanitation is a problem of access that can be solved through toilet construction drives. While many in India do not have access to toilets, the truth is that having a toilet doesn’t necessarily mean that people use it. The Research Institute for Compassionate Economics recently surveyed over 3,200 rural households across Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The survey found that 45% of the households with toilets have at least one person who regularly defecates in the open.
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