Context:

The National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) 2018-19 was conducted by an Independent Verification Agency under the World Bank support project to the Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen (SBM-G).

Key findings of NARSS 2018-19

• 1% of households were found to have access to toilets during the survey period (the corresponding figure as per the SBMG MIS in November 2018 was 96%)
• 5% of the people who had access to toilets used them
• 7% of villages which were previously declared and verified as ODF were confirmed to be ODF. The remaining villages also had sanitation coverage of about 93%
• 4% of the villages surveyed found to have minimal litter and minimal stagnant water

About the Survey

• The survey used the PPS (Probability Proportion to Size) sampling methodology, which yields results within a confidence interval of 95%.
• Data was collected using the Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) platform.
• The survey also covered schools, anganwadis and public/community toilets in these villages.

Success of SBM-G

• Since its launch in October 2014, the SBM, the world’s largest sanitation program, has changed the behaviour of hundreds of millions of people with respect to toilet access and usage.
• 500 million people have stopped defecating in the open since the SBM began, down from 550 million at the beginning of the programme to less than 50 million today.
• Over 9 crore toilets have been built across rural India under the Mission.
• Over 5.5 lakh villages and 615 districts have been declared ODF, along with 30 ODF States and Union Territories.