Context: As per recent released the World Bank report stating that despite the progress of the Swacch Bharat Mission - Gramin (SBM-G), there has been a decline in regular toilet use in rural India from 2018-19.

Key findings of the study

• There has been an increase in access to owned or shared improved toilets in rural India.

• The number of toilets increased from 38% in 2012 to 90% in 2019-20.

• The sharpest increase was reported in the last two years of this time period.

• The SBM information system documented access to shared or own toilets but it had no way of measuring toilet usage.

• This analysis was for the absolute increase from 2014-15 to 2019-21.

• The annual improvements in regular toilet use had not been linear and masks two distinct phases evident in the data.

Negative trends

• First phase (2015-2019): It was marked by large improvements, followed by some stagnation and decline over the last two years.

• Toilet use (regular use of any toilet) is not being sustained in rural households in most states.

• The recent negative trends are most concerning and threaten sustainability.

State-wise performance

• Sustained decline: Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh, since 2018.

• Uneven decline: Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and West Bengal since 2018.

• Steady performers: Odisha, Punjab, Kerala, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Haryana, and Assam.

• At the national level, regular use of any toilet (improved or unimproved) increased from 46% to 75% on average in rural areas during 2015-16 and 2019-21.

Socio-economic sub-groups

• The regular use of any toilet for SC and ST people saw a jump of 51% and 58% respectively between 2015-16 and 2018-19.

• It reached almost the same levels as those in the General Category, these gains have been reversing since then.

Decline amongst SCs, STs

• While regular use of toilets declined for all groups, the decline is the largest for the SCs and the STs.

• There was a 20% decline in regular use of toilets for the SCs and a 24% decline for the STs.

• A decline of 9% and 5% was seen for the Other Backward Caste (OBC) and General categories.

Trend among Rich and poor

• The large increase in toilet use was seen in the poorest 20% of the rural population.

• The poorest people have reported toilet use going up from 7% to 43% between 2015-16 and 2019-21.

• Except for the wealthiest 20%, a significant increase was reported across all quintiles.

• Most low-income States were among the best performers in terms of their overall increase in regular use of toilets.

• The performance of richer States was mixed.

• Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh (low performers at the beginning of SBM-G) saw absolute increases of 52%, 45%, 43%, and 41% respectively in the six-year period from 2015-16 to 2019-21.

• Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Gujarat have seen improvement in regular toilet use but less than in poorer States.