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Rural toilet access rose fastest under Swachh Bharat
The census found a latrine in 21.9% of rural households in 2001 and 30.7% in 2011. When the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) began on 2 October 2014, the programme put rural sanitation coverage at 38.7% (Lok Sabha replies). On 2 October 2019 all rural India was declared open defecation free, on the basis of declarations by villages and states. The National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey 2018-19 found 93.1% of rural households with access to a toilet. The NSO's own survey for July to December 2018 (NSS 76th round) found 71.3%. Programme figures count toilets built and declarations made, and they measure access, which is a separate question from use.
What follows. Rural toilet access rose more between 2014 and 2019 than in the previous decade, on programme figures and on both surveys, which disagree on the level.
One of 37 readings of the dataset, rebuilt whenever the data are refreshed. Data vintage 2026-10-10. Cite as Raman, V.S., Some Perspective: India's Political Economy, 2004-2026, someperspective.info, CC BY 4.0.