On October 2, 2019, all the villages in India were declared open defecation-free (ODF). However, recently published data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) show that in not one of the 18 States surveyed did all the households have access to a toilet facility. The share of access to any type of toilet ranged between 61.7% in Bihar to 99.9% in Mizoram. The survey was initiated in mid-2019 and continued till March 2021. Data also show a wide gap in access to toilets between SC/ST households and other households.
How to read the charts
Each circle corresponds to a State. The charts depict the % of households in a State that had access to any sort of a toilet facility.
Rural household with access to any type of toilet facility
Urban household with access to any type of toilet facility
Households with access to any type of toilet facility
SC household with any type of toilet facility
ST household with any type of toilet facility
OBC household with any type of toilet facility
Takeaways
1. In Bihar, only 45.8% of SC households and 46.6% of ST households had access to any type of toilet facility. On the other hand, 81.6% of the non-OBC/non-SC/non-ST households in the State had access to a toilet facility.
2. Wide disparities in access to any type of toilet facility existed in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Telangana.
3. In rural Gujarat, only 70.6% of the households had access to any type of toilet facility. At the same time, 96.9% of the urban households in the State had access. Such wide disparities existed in Bihar, A.P., Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Note: In NFHS-5 Phase 1, data for major States such as Tamil Nadu, U.P., Punjab, Rajasthan, M.P., Jharkhand were not released.
Also read: Data|Three government surveys debunk Swachh Bharat's 100% ODF claim
