New Delhi (NVI): The government has sought to allay any apprehensions contained in some media reports questioning the level of sanitation coverage in India, citing under-reporting by the respondents to the National Survey.
Notably, a recent National Statistical Office (NSO) statement said, “About 50.3 percent of the households in the rural and about 75.0 percent in the urban areas had exclusive access to bathroom. While around 56.6 percent of the households in rural and about 91.2 percent in urban areas had access to bathroom”.
The survey also said that about 71.3 percent of the households in the rural and about 96.2 percent in the urban areas had access to latrine.
Among the households which had access to latrine, about 94.7 percent of males and 95.7 percent of females in the rural areas used latrine regularly while about 98 percent males and 98.1 percent females in urban areas used latrine regularly, the survey added.
While terming media report as “misleading”, in a joint press statement today, the Ministry of Statistics and Policy Implementation (MOSPI) and Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), said that the NSS report itself has issued a disclaimer, “In NSS 76th round, information on ‘benefits received by the household from the government schemes for drinking water, sanitation, housing, electrification and LPG connection facilities’ was collected for the first time, prior to asking them about having access to these facilities… there may be an inherent tendency of the respondent to give a negative reply on the presumption or expectation that a negative reply on benefits received and access to facilities, may help them to get additional benefits through government schemes…
These points are to be kept in mind while interpreting the results on the benefits received from different government schemes and access to the said facilities.”
Despite this disclaimer, the Ministry said that some recent media articles have quoted the report and questioned the level of sanitation coverage in India.
This interpretation is misleading as the results of the survey on access to latrines and LPG cylinders, as brought out in the report, are likely to be under-reported.
This has been categorically mentioned in section 1.4 of the report, and has been referenced again along with the results of access to latrine in section 3.6 of the report, the statement said.
“The Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MOSPI) and the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Jal Shakti would like to reiterate that due to this limitation, it is inappropriate to use the results of this report to draw conclusions on the sanitation status in India,” the statement added.
