People defecating in the open is a sight common in villages and to an extent in urban areas too. While the government maintains sanitation programmes will reach all corners of India by next year, the World Bank says this is not going to happen before 2020.

“At the present rate of coverage, India will achieve universal sanitation only in 2020,” Ajith Kumar, water and sanitation programme at World Bank, said in a report presented to the ministry last month.

According to the rural development ministry, the country will achieve total sanitation by year 2012. As of date, only Sikkim has achieved the distinction of Nirmal Rajya, a state that has become ‘open defecation free’.

The report also questioned the sustainability of the ministry’s Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP), a cash incentive to encourage villages go ‘open defecation free’.

“Studies on NGP sustainability showed that only 73 percent have access to toilets in NGP villages, while usage of household toilets is low at 67 percent,” said the report.

According to the report, solid and liquid waste management was also a critical issue with almost 75 percent of all villages indulging in unsafe methods of solid and liquid waste management. Only 30 percent of NGP villages have managed to sustain the NGP status. The figures presented by the World Bank casts doubts on the total sanitation campaign (TSC).

TCS is a comprehensive programme to ensure sanitation facilities in rural areas with broader goal to eradicate the practice of open defecation. TSC as a part of reform principles was initiated in 1999 when the Central Rural Sanitation Programme was restructured making it demand-driven and people-centred. It follows a principle of “low to no subsidy” where a nominal subsidy in the form of incentive is given to rural poor households for construction of toilets.