Fact Check: How true are Congress party’s claims about ODF?

that India is 100% ODF. How true are these claims? Here is a detailed

fact-check. On 02 October2019, Congress party posted the following two infographics on its social media handles with the caption, ‘Why is the BJP govt determined to diminish Gandhiji’s ideology of Satya. The only thing honest about this statement is that India must continue to work on this mission because we are not Open Defecation Free’. Why is the BJP govt determined to diminish Gandhiji's ideology of Satya. The only thing honest about this statement is that India must continue to work on this mission because we are not Open Defecation Free. https://t.co/1qBeI1ast0 pic.twitter.com/BdLMWkXFfI This post wasuploaded following BJP’s tweet on 01 October 2019, stating that onMahatma Gandhi’s 150 birth anniversary, the incredible task ofmaking India Open Defecation Free has been achieved. In this story, we factcheck Indian National Congress’s claims by verifying both the infographicsseparately. Are 7% of the Urban households without water for use in Toilet? Claim: Lack of water in urban households for toilet purposes has forced more people to defecate in the open. 7% of Urban households are without water for use in toilet. In Uttar Pradesh, this is at 11% and 19% in Jharkhand. The firstinfographic on urban households claims that 7% of the urban households’ lackwater for use in toilets. In Uttar Pradesh 11% of the urban households do nothave water to be used in toilets while in Jharkhand, the same is at 19%. Thelack of access to water in toilets leads to unclean toilets thereby resultingin open defecation. The numbers usedby Congress have been taken from the ‘Swachhta Status in India’ report releasedby the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in October 2018. This survey was undertakenby NSSO between July to December, 2017 along with other surveys and released in October2018. As per this report, 18% in Odisha, 17% in Tripura and 16% in West Bengalalso lack water in toilets. It can also beseen that, as compared to the 72 round of NSS conducted betweenJuly 2014 and June 2015, the percentage of urban households without water intoilets has dropped from 12% to 7% in 2018. Similarly, in each of these states,there has been a reduction in the percentage of urban households without waterin toilets except in West Bengal and Odisha, where this number either increasedor remained the same. In spite of lackof water as noted above, 99% of the urban population in India who have toilets,avail the facility according to the same report. As per this report, 4% of urbanpopulation in India were not using any kind of toilets during the period ofsurvey. The same proportion was 8% in 2014-15. Thus, a fall in the proportionof urban population not using toilets has reduced by 4% in 2 years. Wateravailability in toilets increased from 88% of households in 2014-15 to 93% in2017. However, thelatest data on urban households without water facility for toilets is notavailable (for the year 2019). Secondly, the NSSO reports are sample surveysand for the 75 round, the survey covered 7134 units (4043 villagesand 3091 urban blocks) and 71205 households (40338 in rural areas and 30867 inurban areas) at an All-India level. Thus, the claim made by Congress remains UNVERIFIED. Is it true that 33% of Rural Indians do not use any type of toilet? Claim: India is not open defecation free since 33% of rural Indians still do not use any type of toilet. The data used bythe Congress in the second infographic is also based on the ‘Swachhta Status inIndia’ report released by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in October2018. According to this report, 33% of rural Indians did not use any type oftoilet, be it household or community toilet. Uttar Pradesh had the largestproportion of such rural population, about 58%, who didn’t use toilets. Thepercentages in Bihar and Jharkhand were 53% and 49% respectively. In Odisha,47% of rural population did not use toilets. However, ascompared to the 72 NSSO round of 2015, the percentage of ruralpopulation that did not use toilets has come down from 52% to 33%. Even inUttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, the percentage has dropped by 8%, 17% and32% respectively. The highest decrease in proportion of rural proportion notusing toilets was witnessed in Chhattisgarh, by 53%. Hence, the possibility offurther decrease in the numbers in second half of 2019 cannot be ruled out. National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) conducted between November 2018 andFebruary 2019 by an independent verification agency revealed that 93.3% ofrural population had access to toilets while 96.5% of the rural people who hadaccess to toilets, used them. The survey was conducted across 6136 villages inIndia with a sample of 92,040 households.