The new Economic Survey has declared that the number of people defecating in open in the nrural area has come down to 25 crores from 55 crores in January 2014. The survey names eight states and two union territories as Open Defection free (ODF).
According to the survey 296 districts, and 3,07,349 villages all over India have been declared as Open Defecation Free (ODF).
Eight States and two Union Territories, i.e., Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Daman & Diu and Chandigarh have been declared as ODF completely.
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The survey states that the Sanitation coverage in rural India has increased substantially post the implementation of Swatch Bharat mission (Gramin) on October 2, 2014.
The number has increased substantially from 39% in 2014 to 76% in January 2018.
The survey also cited UNICEF observation that every year 1,00,000 children die in India due to poor sanitation.
While the non-ODF districts have a lower percentage of the population with secondary education and reflect higher levels of diarrhoea and stunting, there has been a clear-cut evidence of behavioural shift of the individuals in ODF areas due to the larger presence and proactive work undertaken by village health and sanitation committees, the survey noted.
The Survey also says that there are economic benefits in becoming open-defecation free.
“According to the World Bank estimates, the lack of sanitation facilities costs India over 6-% of GDP. In a report ‘The Financial and Economic Impact of SBM in India (2017)’ UNICEF estimated that a household in an ODF village in rural India saves ?50,000 ($800) every year,” the Economic Survey states.
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