Union Government launches Swachh Survekshan Gramin 2017

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 8 August 2017 launched a third party verification survey report to take stock of the progress made by the Swachh Bharat Mission in rural India.

The Swachh Survekshan Gramin 2017 report was launched at a press conference held in New Delhi by Narendra Singh Tomar, the Union Minister, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, and Parameswaran Iyer, the Secretary.

During the press conference, it was announced that, to encourage States and districts to improve their Sanitation coverage and Solid Liquid Waste Management (SLWM), the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation will begin ranking all districts in India based on the data available on the SBM-G IMIS quarterly.

The ranking will be done based on parameters of Performance, Sustainability and Transparency, and the first ranking will be announced on 2 October 2017 for the quarter July-September 2017.

In addition, the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) will celebrate the week leading up to the 70th Independence Day as Khule Mein Shauch Se Azaadi Saptaah.

The Quality Council of India (QCI) conducted a transparent third-party assessment of the present status of rural sanitation in all the States and the Union Territories (UTs), called Swachh Survekshan Gramin 2017.

Key highlights of Swachh Survekshan Gramin 2017

• Under the Swachh Survekshan Gramin 2017, QCI surveyed 1.4 lakh rural households across 4626 villages, and found the overall toilet coverage to be 62.45 per cent.

• At the time of the survey, i.e. May-June 2017, the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) MIS reported the toilet coverage to be 63.73 per cent.

• The survey observed that 91.29 per cent of the people having access to a toilet and they also use it.  

Top performing states

Sikkim, Manipur and Nagaland were the top performers with 95 per cent rural households covered by toilets. In addition, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand had over 90 per cent toilet coverage of the rural houses.

Gujarat fared better in terms of rural sanitation as 85 per cent of rural households had access to toilets. Almost all rural households in Kerala and Haryana have access to a toilet.  In Tamil Nadu, 79 per cent of the rural households had access to a toilet.

Worst performing states

In Bihar, only 30 per cent of the rural households had access to toilets. On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh was marginally better at 37 per cent. In Jharkhand, only 37 per cent of the rural households had access to a toilet.