Every morning around dawn, dozens of people gather by the dusty banks of a strea...
KOPPAL/SHIKRAWA, India - Every morning around dawn, dozens of people gather by the dusty banks of a stream snaking through Shikrawa village, two hours south of India’s capital, New Delhi, to do the same thing: defecate in the open.
But interviews with over half a dozen surveyors involved in the World Bank-supported study, and two participating researchers, all raised significant concerns with the methodology of the survey, and its findings. In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the “Swachh Bharat,” or “Clean India” campaign and vowed to eliminate open defecation nationwide in five years.
Data from the World Bank-supported National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey that concluded in February shows that only about 10% of rural Indians defecate in the open. The survey was conducted using funds from a $1.5 billion World Bank loan for Swachh Bharat. The ministry “categorically dismisses and denies the claims of the two RICE researchers,” it said, without elaborating.
A NARSS surveyor in western Rajasthan state said surveyors would mark a village as ODF - for open defecation-free - even if they spotted faeces on the ground or people defecating outside — a violation of government guidelines.
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