A significant proportion of families belonging to the lower income category say that availability of adequate water is a big hindrance in usage of toilets. A reliable and regular source of water is critical for families to be able to use toilets in their houses.
During the nationwide survey conducted by CVoter Foundation in late April, the question asked was: Do you have enough water supply for using the toilet? To which, 52.7 per cent of the respondents said that they did get adequate water supply, while more than 40 per cent disagreed with the contention.
The data from the CVoter Foundation survey reveals differences across respondent categories. While two thirds of the respondents living in urban India said they do get enough water to use toilets in their houses, the corresponding figure for rural India was a little above 46 per cent.
Similarly, while 55 per cent of upper caste Hindus said they got enough water, a significantly lower 44 per cent of respondents belonging to the scheduled tribes shared the same opinion.
When asked why people living in their area still defecate in the open, 17 per cent of the respondents cited lack of water as a reason while another 21 per cent each cited lack of cleanliness and lack of a functional toilet as the reason.
While the Swach Bharat mission launched in 2014 is regarded as a success with more than 9 crore toilets being built, lack of adequate water supply has emerged as a challenge in enabling families to keep using the toilets.
The exclusive survey conducted by CVoter Foundation across the country was initiated to find out success and failures of the Swach Bharat campaign. To make the survey more representative of reality on the ground, all the respondents came from the lower income background, with incomes below Rs 3000 per month. The underlying assumption is that it is the very poor who defecate the most in the open.
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