Goa does not have a single village declared as open defecation free. It is the only State that stands at zero percent where ODF is concerned. Closest to it are the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with 0.93 percent villages declared ODF. Look further at the statistics, and you find that Goa, Bihar and Manipur do not have a single district which has been declared ODF. However, the size of the States also matters, and while Goa has just two districts Bihar has 38 and Manipur nine.
The statistics that are uploaded on the Swachh Bharat website are definitely not complimentary to Goa. Today, 11 States in India are 100 percent open defecation free, Goa obviously is not one of them. There are 308 districts that are open defecation free, neither of Goa’s two districts come under that category.
When the Swachh Bharat Mission had been announced in October 2014, the percentage of household toilets in the State was 60.72 percent that over three years later has risen to 76.22 percent. A very slow growth, especially when compared to the growth in the rest of the country.
Juxtapose these statistics with that of Rajasthan that in October 2014 had a percentage of 30.55 percent and has gone up to 98.58 percent today, or to Telangana that from 30.81 percent in October 2014 now stands at 79.05 percent. Better still, look at Chhattisgarh that from 41.64 percent in October 2014 is already 100 percent open defecation free.
If these States, and many others can take such large steps in meeting targets to be open defecation free, or coming close to it, how can Goa’s slow pace, especially since it has a high literacy rate, be explained?
One reason being bandied for the slow rate at which the State is moving in meeting the target is that the economic activities in urban areas, building construction actually, is hindering the ODF target as the floating population of migrant workers are not given toilet facilities. Another reason is the hilly terrain in the rural areas that is a block to building toilets.
Last month, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri, on a recent visit to Goa announced that the State will become 100 percent open defecation free (ODF) by October 2018, one year before the deadline set by the Union government for the entire country to be ODF. Puri during his visit to Goa, had complimented the State for its garbage treatment plant, and suggested that other State follow Goa’s example.
An earlier deadline set by the State government for itself was to be ODF by December 2017, which had been set by the former Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar who had informed the then Union Minister for Urban Development, Venkaiah Naidu, who is now the Vice-President, when the latter had reviewed the progress of works relating to the Swachh Bharat Mission in the State. The government had proposed setting up 100 community toilets in the State to meet the target.
From 100 community toilets to be built, the number has now risen drastically, as Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said that 70,000 houses in the State do not have toilets and that the government intends to build these for them by October 2, this year. According to the Goa Economic Survey report 2016-17, and based on the Census of 2011, the percentage of households with latrines was 79.72.
The State is now identifying land to build toilets, to meet the October target to be ODF. But had it not been for the Swachh Bharat Mission, how much longer would Goa have remained with people defecating in the open? That’s a question that indeed boggles the mind.
