Hyderabad: The website of the Swachch Bharat Mission claims that only nine states have 100 per cent household toilet coverage. But Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh do not fall in this list.
The percentage of households with toilets in TS is 74.69 per cent, while in AP it is 80.05 per cent, according to the 2017 survey. Though the two Telugu states are not totally covered, there is a sharp rise in the number of toilets constructed between 2014 and 2017.
Telangana’s toilet coverage was 33.36 per cent in 2014; it was among five states with the least number of toilets in the house. In the past four years, this has increased to 74.69 per cent in 2017, a jump of over 100 per cent. AP’s coverage was 46.57 per cent which has increased to 80.95 per cent.
The increase is a result of government-level sanitation strategy to make the state free from open defecation. An officer involved in TS sanitation strategy said, “The focus was on open defecation-free cities, districts and towns. The state’s move was towards a situation where all urban and ru-ral dwellers have access to and use safe and hygi-enic sanitation facilities and arrangements so that no one defecates in the open.”
The strategies that proved beneficial for the state were promoting community-planned and managed toilets in slums and underserved areas and wherever necessary, for groups of households who have constraints of space, tenure or economic constraints in gaining access to individual facilities.
Secondly, adequate availability and 100 per cent upkeep and management of public sanitation facilities for migrant and floating populations and community toilets for the urban poor added to the improving situation.
