While the Narendra Modi led BJP government may be praising the situation with regards to rural sanitation and there is talk of achieving the ODF goals by 2019, experts and those covering the scenario across the broad say that there remain miles to go.
In India the number of villages is estimated to be between 600,000 and one million, as per government databases. Of these, 593,615 are inhabited.
Definition of villages vary making it a challenge to plan across sectors for rural development.
Depending on the size of population, a gram panchayat may consist of a single village or a cluster of adjoining villages. There are an estimated 262,800 of these gram panchayats in the country today.
News Agency IANS reported Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently speaking at a congregation said that rural sanitation coverage had gone up from 39 percent to 66 percent in last three years. 2.17 lakh villages are now free of open defacation.
Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) (SBM(G) has accomplished a lot. Taking thiings forward from Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, SBM (G) has led to 2 lakh villages being declared open-defecation-free (ODF), and more than 40 million household toilets constructed.
Amidst the race to reach the goal of an ODF India by 2019 there remains about 60 million households in rural India who do not have access to a toilet and four lakh villages are not yet ODF.
Even after a SBM (G) incentive, financing remains a barrier for households. Many households are not eligible for the incentive because their income is too high or because they have already used a previous sanitation incentive.
Reports show there has been little priority sector lending (PSL) for sanitation.
A 1% sub-limit for sanitation would unlock some Rs 90,000 crores for the sanitation lending.
In 2016, as many as 96.5 per cent of rural elementary government schools had toilets, but more than one in four (27.79 per cent) were dysfunctional or locked. Only about 68.7 per cent of schools had working toilet facilities for students.
The working and use of sanitation facilities is ignored because of an overemphasis on availability of infrastructure.
Access to working toilets has gone down over time. In the context of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan-Gramin and Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya measuring usability of sanitation infrastructure becomes even more important.
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