3 years of Swachh Bharat: States may be inflating number of toilets built

Deadline of making India open defecation free by Oct 2019 untenable as states not spending to ensure behavioural change

Three years after the launch of the ambitious Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G), the number of toilets constructed under the scheme appears exaggerated in the absence of an independent or credible verification report. The progress made under the SBM-G suggests that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019 is likely to remain unfulfilled as many big states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar showed little progress and many other states are not spending money on information, education and communication activities to motivate rural households to use toilets.
 

There is fear that the Swachh