Modi proclaims a cleaner India, but the reality may be more murky

Indian commuters drive along a busy road in New Delhi. Picture: NOEMI CASSANELLI / AFP

But interviews with over half a dozen surveyors involved in the World Bank-supported study, and two participating researchers, all raised concerns with the methodology of the survey, and its findings. In a country plagued by sexual assault crimes, the lack of toilets also disproportionately affects women, who have to walk long distances before dawn or after dark to relieve themselves.

“The whole point of this is for people’s health,” said Payal Hathi, a researcher consulted on the World Bank-backed survey. “It’s unfortunate that the data are so misleading.” The specific goal of reporting low open-defecation levels was communicated clearly by government representatives to Kantar Public — the company contracted to conduct the survey — and by Kantar to the surveyors, the two said.Hathi said the national annual rural sanitation survey questionnaire contained leading queries about toilet usage that may have influenced respondents, and the government ignored suggestions aimed at fixing queries.

The surveyors interviewed by Reuters worked in the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka and declined to be named for fear of losing their jobs. “The World Bank has not received any formal expressions of concern related to the work of the surveyors,” said a World Bank spokesperson. “An exercise of this scale will have inconsistencies.”

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