-The Hindu Major drop seen in Open defecation 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. However, a monitoring report by UN organisations released on Tuesday also shows that there has been absolutely no growth in the population with access to piped water facilities over...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Villages where people still defecate in open face nearly 13 times higher risk of faecal contamination of ground water as compared to Open defecation free (ODF) villages, says a study by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The assessment has also found that risk of ground water contamination in Bihar, one of the states which is yet to be declared ODF, is maximum at nearly 36%. The study,...

-Down to Earth While we near the deadline of October 2, 2019 for ODF, concerns like non-functional toilets, poor sewage and drainage systems, lack of water, and poor faecal sludge management demand immediate attention of the new government In the last five years India saw a renewed focus on sanitation with the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) which aims to provide universal sanitation coverage by providing funds for constructing toilets, promoting...

-Counterview.net Sharply contesting the Government of India claim that “Open defecation has been entirely or largely eliminated” in the Hindi belt, a recent study, “Changes in Open defecation in rural north India: 2014-2018” has found that “between 42% to 57% of rural people over two years old defecate in the open” in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Based on a survey of 1,558 households involving 9,812 individuals, and 156 “qualitative...

-The Hindu ‘Open defecation levels are still above 40% in ODF States; Swachh Bharat has not brought behavioural change’ New research on the impact of the Swachh Bharat Mission in the rural parts of four northern States shows that while Open defecation has fallen and toilet ownership has increased, the percentage of people who owned toilets but continued to defecate in the open has remained unchanged between 2014 and 2018. This indicates...