Total sanitation: UNICEF-WHO report indicts India, says poorest sections have seen "very little" improvement

In a major indictment of India’s effort to achieve total sanitation, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have said in a report that in a report that the country has failed to fight open defecation among its poorest sections of people. Pointing out that the “progress among the poorest has been slower” in the entire southern Asian region, the report underlines, “In India there has been very little change over the last 20 years.”
The countries that form part of the southern Asian region, according the UNICEF-WHO report, are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. At the same time, the report says, “All countries achieved significant reductions amongst the richest, and three countries succeeded in eliminating open defecation among this group.” It adds, “Bangladesh is the only country in the region where progress has been faster among the poorest and the gap has been reduced.”

The 90-page report, titled “Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation – 2015 update and MDG”, the result of WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP), which began in 1990. In 2000, the member states of the United Nations signed the Millennium Declaration, which later gave rise to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). One of the MDGs was the target challenging the global community to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
Even as noting that in the Southern Asia region, where the number of open defecators is highest, has made “significant improvements”, “Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan have all achieved reductions of more than 30 percentage points since 1990”, there India’s “31 per cent reduction in open defecation in represents 394 million people”, significantly influencing “regional and global estimates”, the report notes, “Despite significant progress, much still remains to be done.”

In fact, the report’s data show, India’s 31 per cent reduction in open defecation from 75 per cent in 1990 to 44 in 2015 stands out in sharp contrast to Pakistan, which reduced it from 49 to 13 per cent; Bangladesh, which reduced it from 34 per cent to 1 per cent; and Nepal, which reduced it from 88 to 32 per cent; Sri Lanka, which reduced it from 13 per cent to 0 per cent. In China, open defecation was just 7 per cent in 1990, which went down to 1 per cent in 2015.

The report says that India’s progress towards MDG target – of achieving 50 per cent improvement in sanitation by 2015 – has been “moderate”. In fact, it calculates, between 1990 and 2015, India was able to improve sanitation facilities only by 28 per cent, compared to Pakistan 50 per cent, Nepal 43 per cent, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka 38 per cent, and China 37 per cent. Thus, while Pakistan, Sri Lanka and China have already “met target”, the report says, Bangladesh and Nepal have made “good progress”.
Even as quantifying progress of all countries in the world towards achieving total sanitation goals, the report does not, however, give any explanation why the progress in some countries has been “poor”, “moderate” while in others it is “good.” Nor is there any explanation as to why the poorest sections, for instance, in India, have seen very little progress in achieving sanitation goals.

Comments

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Civil Aviation Minister.

Global NGO slams India for media clampdown during conflict, downplays Pakistan

A global civil rights group, Civicus has taken strong exception to how critical commentaries during the “recent conflict” with Pakistan were censored in India, with journalists getting “targeted”. I have no quarrel with the Civicus view, as the facts mentioned in it are all true.

Whither SCOPE? Twelve years on, Gujarat’s official English remains frozen in time

While writing my previous blog on how and why Narendra Modi went out of his way to promote English when he was Gujarat chief minister — despite opposition from people in the Sangh Parivar — I came across an interesting write-up by Aakar Patel, a well-known name among journalists and civil society circles.

Remembering Vijay Rupani: A quiet BJP leader who listened beyond party lines

Late evening on June 12, a senior sociologist of Indian origin, who lives in Vienna, asked me a pointed question: Of the 241 persons who died as a result of the devastating plane crash in Ahmedabad the other day, did I know anyone? I had no hesitation in telling her: former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, whom I described to her as "one of the more sensible persons in the BJP leadership."

Why India’s renewable energy sector struggles under 2,735 compliance hurdles

Recently, during a conversation with an industry representative, I was told how easy it is to set up a startup in Singapore compared to India. This gentleman, who had recently visited Singapore, explained that one of the key reasons Indians living in the Southeast Asian nation prefer establishing startups there is because the government is “extremely supportive” when it comes to obtaining clearances. “They don’t want to shift operations to India due to the large number of bureaucratic hurdles,” he remarked.

Guha plans book to counter Dalit, Marxist, and right-wing critics of Gandhi, recalls Modi’s 'pernicious lie' on Patel

Let me first confess: writing about an event three weeks after it has taken place is no good, especially for a newsperson. However, ever since I attended the public lecture by well-known historian Ramachandra Guha on May 18, organised by Sarthak Prakashan for the release of the Gujarati edition of his book monumental book "India After Gandhi", frankly, I kept wondering if he had said anything newsworthy apart from what had already appeared in the media ever since the book's first edition came out in 2007. Call it my inertia or whatever.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Search This Blog