Facts on Hygiene and Cleanliness in India: Progress, Gaps, and Ground Realities

Fresh SSB batches start around the 1st & 15th of every month.

1. No-toilet Households
   • As of 2022–23, about 12.5% of Indian households still do not have any toilet — that’s over 162 million people.
   • Most of these are in rural areas and tend to be the poorest households.
2. Open Defecation Free (ODF) Progress
   • The Swachh Bharat Mission – Grameen (SBM-G) has declared about 95% of villages as “Open Defecation Free Plus (ODF Plus),” which includes toilet access and solid/liquid waste management.
   • However, ODF/ODF Plus status doesn’t guarantee perfect hygiene — usage, maintenance, and waste management remain challenges.
3. Impact on Health
   • SBM has helped avert an estimated 60,000–70,000 infant deaths annually by improving toilet access.
   • Improved sanitation correlates with lower diarrhoeal disease, better nutrition, and reduced child mortality.
4. Basic Hygiene Access
   • As of 2024, around 89.7% of households in India had access to basic hygiene facilities like soap and water for handwashing.
   • This marks a significant improvement in hygiene behavior over previous years.
5. Use of Cleaners / Domestic Sanitation Products
   • Household use of toilet cleaners rose from ~19% in 2014 to ~53% in 2024; floor cleaner usage grew from ~8% to ~22%.
   • This reflects increased awareness and market penetration driven by cleanliness campaigns.
6. Waste Collection vs Processing
   • Nearly 93% of urban local bodies in India collect household waste daily.
   • However, only ~57% of that waste is actually processed or treated — the rest often ends up in landfills or dumping grounds.
7. Remaining Gaps & Challenges
   • Some states lag significantly in sanitation indicators like toilet ownership, open defecation, and waste treatment.
   • A household may have a toilet but still practice open defecation due to behavioral, maintenance, or usability issues.
   • Solid-liquid waste management (SLWM) in many towns and villages remains weak — ODF Plus requires ongoing cleanliness efforts that are hard to sustain.