View: Of all Modi’s projects, Swachh Bharat will have the greatest long-term impact on people’s lives

I had the opportunity, in a conversation several months prior to 2014 elections, to discuss with the then chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, the future course of economic and social policy. When it came to the health sector, I urged him to pay special attention to public health as prime minister.

I reasoned that over the decades the government had gone deeply into the provision of medical services, which even private sector provided. At the same time, it had neglected public health, which only it can provide. The result, for instance, had been that drainage systems in our cities had become so badly clogged that even moderate rains resulted in stagnant water bodies that then served as breeding grounds for vector-borne diseases.

I went on to add that the old tradition of parents inculcating in children the habit of washing hands first thing after entering home and before every meal had also been dying. As prime minister, through television broadcasts and other media, Modi could exhort parents to return to inculcating good personal hygiene habits in children.


Modi listened patiently and then said: “October 2, 2019, will be the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Why not resolve to gift the father of the nation a Swachh Bharat on that day!” I did not fully appreciate the significance of what he had said at the time.

It was only when I heard him announce – in his maiden address to the nation from the Red Fort on August 15, 2014 – the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) that I understood the meaning of his words that afternoon in Gandhinagar. It then dawned on me that Modi had been thinking about transforming India in all its aspects for a lot longer than any of us may have realised.

Of the numerous schemes, projects and policy reforms that Modi has launched during the last five years, if I were asked to pick just one that would have the greatest long-term impact on the lives of people, it would have to be SBM. Ending open defecation, creating cities and villages free of litter and stagnant water, and cleaning up air we breathe are essential to long and healthy lives of citizens.

On October 2, 2014, the day SBM was officially launched, only 38.7% rural household had toilets. With 92.6 million additional toilets built, this proportion stands at 99.1% today. All states and Union territories (UTs) except Goa and Odisha are open defecation free (ODF) in rural areas. All states and UTs except Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh are also ODF in urban India.

These are official figures of the government of India. It can plausibly be argued that the pressure to show progress leads local officials to exaggerate the achievements. But the National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS 2018-19), conducted by an independent verification agency selected via open competition, broadly confirms these achievements for rural India.

The survey is supervised from beginning to end by an expert group co-chaired by Amitabh Kundu, a former member of the National Statistical Commission, and NC Saxena, a member of the National Advisory Council chaired by Sonia Gandhi during the United Progressive Alliance rule. The expert group also includes as members representatives of the World Bank, Unicef, Water Aid, BMGF, NSSO, Niti Aayog and Indian Sanitation Coalition.

Based on interviews with approximately 90,000 households, NARSS 2018-19 is a large survey. It collected its data between November 2018 and February 2019. It found that nationwide 93.1% of the households had access to toilets. Of the villages verified as ODF by the government, the survey confirmed 90.7% as being so. The survey also found 95.4% of the villages as having minimal litter and stagnant water.

A particular concern among critics has been that households with toilets often do not use them. Therefore, NARSS 2018-19 made special effort to collect data on toilet usage. Contrary to popular belief, it found that a whopping 96.5% of the households with access to toilets used them.

The first round of NARSS was carried out in 2017-18. This allows us to measure the progress achieved during 2018-19. The proportion of households with access to toilets rose from 77% in 2017-18 to 93.1% in 2018-19. The proportion of households with access to toilets that used toilets rose from 93.4% to 96.5%.

But the proportion of villages verified as ODF and confirmed to be so fell from 95.6% to 90.7%. This last finding suggests that sustaining collective behavioural change at the level of the village over a long period is a challenge and this is where the government will need to persist in its efforts.

Notwithstanding the large sample size and supervision by multiple independent experts and agencies, NARSS can be and has been criticised for its overly optimistic picture. But no matter how we choose to measure it, progress made during the last five years convincingly demonstrates that India can achieve the same level of toilet usage and cleanliness as observed in advanced countries within the foreseeable future.

The writer is Professor of Economics at Columbia University