India Sach Mein ODF Ho Gaya?

On Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary, rural India was declared 100% Open Defecation Free (ODF), meaning every family had access to a toilet, under the Swachh Bharat Mission.

Toilet access genuinely improved a great deal. The National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey 2019–20 found 0.8% of the rural population still practising open defecation, down from 23% in 2017–18. That's real progress, and it is not the “100%” a declared ODF status implies. A CAG report on 19 September 2018 had already flagged gaps in how toilet construction and usage were verified, and independent field surveys (including peer-reviewed research in Rajasthan) found continued open defecation in villages officially certified ODF.

“Going from 23% to under 1% is a genuinely huge achievement. It is also not the same thing as zero.”