Despite early gains of Swachh Bharat Mission, toilet use declining since 2018-19: World Bank paper

While noting that this analysis was for the absolute increase from 2014-15 to 2019-21, the paper also said that the annual improvements in regular toilet use had not been linear “and masks two distinct phases evident in the data”. 

A departmental working paper by the World Bank on the progress of the Swacch Bharat Mission - Gramin (SBM-G) has now found that despite “breathtaking” gains made by the programme to bring toilet access to rural India since 2014-15, when it began, there has been a clear trend of regular toilet use declining in rural India from 2018-19 onwards, with the largest drop being seen among Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe socio-economic groups.

These findings come amid concerns over the government’s claims that practices such as open defecation and manual scavenging no longer continue in India solely based on the fact that toilet access had improved after the building of over 100 million toilets.

The paper, by researchers at the World Bank and a faculty of Economics at Yale University, reconciles varied data points on toilet access and usage from the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS), National Sample Surveys (NSS) and the National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) and the SBM-G’s own information system. The NARSS was conducted across rural India from 2017-18 to 2019-20 by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation with World Bank support.

The paper found that as the programme started, it led to a substantial increase in access to own or shared improved toilets in rural India - from 38% in 2012 to 90% in 2019-20 - with the sharpest increase reported in the last two years of this time period.

The researchers noted that while the SBM information system documented access to shared or own toilets, it had no way of measuring toilet usage. However, data from the surveys pointed out that there was a parallel rise in toilet usage with the above-mentioned increase in toilet access.

But while noting that this analysis was for the absolute increase from 2014-15 to 2019-21, the paper also said that the annual improvements in regular toilet use had not been linear “and masks two distinct phases evident in the data”. 

“The first phase of 2015-2019 was marked by large improvements, followed by some stagnation and decline over the last two years. The recent negative trends are most concerning and raises questions about sustainability,” the paper said.