Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh have the maximum percentage of villages that are ‘Open Defecation Free’ according to the criteria of the Swachh Bharat Mission.
While the northeastern State scores a hundred per cent, as per the current tally, Himachal Pradesh scores 55.95 per cent.
Other better performing States with village-level achievements are Haryana and Meghalaya with just over 41 per cent each, Gujarat (37.58 per cent), Maharashtra (28.33 per cent), Chhattisgarh (24.91 per cent) and Rajasthan (23.83 per cent).
Kerala, which leads in overall household toilet coverage as per Swachh Bharat surveys, is in the list with only 19.92 per cent, indicating that declarations play a role in the overall assessment. Besides these, the other States identified by the Mission trail the rest with lower coverage. The total number of districts declared ODF in the country stand at 23.
For purposes of assessing performance, the Swachh Bharat Mission considers both individual household latrine coverage and ODF.
The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation defines ODF as “the termination of faecal-oral transmission, defined by no visible faeces found in the environment/village and every household as well as public/community institution using safe technology option for disposal of faeces.”
Three cities in Karnataka — coastal Mangaluru, Udupi and Mysuru — have been declared “open defecation free” this week in the survey conducted among 75 cities across the country under different population categories.
Mysuru scored again, after it topped the list of “clean cities” for two consecutive years. A recent survey of 476 cities had also declared Mangaluru the third cleanest in India.
If the tag of defecation free city is to be continued, the certificate would have to be renewed after periodic inspections.
