Centre pushes States to adopt such policies
If you do not have toilet facilities you may be barred from availing the Government’s beneficiary schemes. The Centre has suggested the State Governments to explore such options, a move that is being seen as a bid to push the Swachh Bharat Mission that aims to make the country open-defecation free by 2019.
“There is a suggestion that some Government benefits should not flow to individuals who do not have a household latrine of their own,” Pankaj Jain, Secretary of Ministry of Water and Sanitation stated in a letter to the States, apparently supporting the move.
“Restriction would force them to consider having a toilet in their houses,” a senior official said adding benefits such as subsidies or free education facilities through various schemes could be stopped.
The Ministry has also favoured suggestions from the States that some punitive action can be considered too to restrict cases of open defecation and encourage construction and use of toilets. Jain also supported the proposal of some of the States to collect fines by Gram Panchayats from people found defecating in the open.
The move follows concern that the people were reluctant to not only construct toilets but those having it rarely using it as has been found by a recent survey. It observed that programmes launched to promote use of toilets have failed to influence sanitation behaviours of many people in several States.
The study conducted by Research Institute for Compassionate Economics (RICE), Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh in 3,235 rural households in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh noted that at least 30 per cent of the people in the world, who defecate in open, live in these states. Incidentally many had toilet facilities in their homes.
As per the study, in 40 per cent of the households that had a functional latrine, at least one member defecated in the open as they found it more comfortable and convenient.
According to the UNICEF, India has continuously topped the chart for open defecation being practised by as many as 70 per cent of Indians in rural areas-or approximately 550 million people.