Over 62% households in rural India have access to toilets: Survey

New Delhi: More than 62 per cent households in rural India have access to toilets while their usage stands at 91 per cent, till June, according to a survey.

To evaluate the progress made under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin), the Quality Council of India (QCI) on the directions of the Union Rural Development Ministry conducted a national third-party verification survey of the mission.

"It was conducted during May-June this year. As per its findings, the overall access to toilets was 62.45 per cent in rural households and 91.29 per cent of them were using it, till June this year," Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told reporters here.

Whereas, as per official data the overall access to toilets was 63.73 per cent, "so the findings of the QCI are near to our data, which testifies the progress made under the clean India mission," he said.

The minister said the government was confident that it would achieve its target of making the entire country open defecation free (ODF) by October 2, 2019.

According to the survey, 89 per cent households in rural areas across the country had no litter around their premises while 93 per cent households had no stagnant waste.

QCI conducted survey in 1.4 lakh households in 4,626 villages across the country. The surveyors also visited 4,289 anganwadis and 1,670 public health centres.

According to the survey, 65 per cent of anganwadis and 76 per cent of public health centres (PHC) have access to toilet.

The Swachh Bharat Mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 2, 2014 with the goal of achieving ODF and clean India by October 2, 2019.