54% rural people have no access to toilets: Govt report

Fifteen years after the government launched Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA), a flagship programme to provide rural India access to toilets and make the country open defecation free, the latest government survey has found that it has failed to make much progress.

The survey carried out by government backed independent evaluators has found that 54% of the total households surveyed had no access to toilets. Census 2011 however puts the figure at 67%.

The survey which included 26 states, 287 districts and 2868 villages as the sample size was carried out between May-June this year revealed that only 11% of the villages had 100% coverage (toilet access), 16% had 75% coverage, 24% villages with 50% coverage and 33% with 25% coverage.