Toilets built under the Narendra Modi government's Swachh Bharat Mission might have helped in averting 60,000-70,000 infant deaths every year, a study said on Thursday.
The study was published in a journal Scientific Reports, that probed the link between an increase in access to toilets built under the Swachh Bharat Mission, and reduction in deaths among infants and children below five years of age from 2000 to 2020.
The researchers from the International Food Policy Research Institute in the United States studied the data from the nationally representative surveys covering 35 states/Union territories and over 600 districts over 20 years, a report by PTI added.
PM Modi lauds ‘Swachh Bharat' report
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the report, saying,"Happy to see research highlighting the impact of efforts like the Swachh Bharat Mission. Access to proper toilets plays a crucial role in reducing infant and child mortality. Clean, safe sanitation has become a game-changer for public health. And, I am glad India has taken the lead in this."
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What did the study results show?
According to the study, an improvement in district-level toilet access by 10% points corresponded to the reduction of death rates in infants by 0.9 points and those below five years of age by 1.1 points.
{{/usCountry}}According to the study, an improvement in district-level toilet access by 10% points corresponded to the reduction of death rates in infants by 0.9 points and those below five years of age by 1.1 points.
{{/usCountry}}The study's authors said that having access to a toilet and deaths among children have been inversely related in India, adding that improvement in toilet coverage by 30 per cent and above in a district corresponded with substantial reductions in infant and children deaths.
"In absolute numbers, this coefficient would scale to an estimated 60,000-70,000 infant lives annually," the authors wrote in the report.
According to the study, the novel evidence of a decrease in infant and child mortality following a comprehensive national sanitation programme, potentially indicated at the transformative role of Swachh Bharat Mission.
“The findings are in line with evidence from global and South Asian contexts, with multiple studies, that analysed population-level data collected via surveys, indicated that improved sanitation can potentially cut child mortality rates by 5-30 per cent,” PTI quoted the research report as saying.
They added that recent studies have highlighted the broader benefits of increased access to toilets, including women's safety, financial savings because of reduced medical expenses and improved quality of life overall.
The report also point out “inequalities in adopting and using toilets due to caste and religion-based discriminatory practices".
"Our findings add to the growing body of evidence linking national sanitation campaigns to improved child health outcomes and emphasizes the need for similar interventions in other low- and middle-income countries," the authors wrote.
The report also claimed that local authorities resort to coercive measures and discrimination to meet campaign targets, which violated individuals' rights, particularly those of manual scavengers and people from lower-caste.
"These practices pose challenges to the effective and equitable implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission, and raise legitimate concerns about the long-term sustainability of hygiene-related behaviour change," the authors wrote.
(With PTI inputs)