Republic of extreme inequalities

In her latest book, Swati Narayan brings stories from the grassroots that otherwise would not have seen the light of day

- AMITABH RANJAN

EVERY MORNING, WE see Indians take a dump in the open fields. That tongue-in-cheek remark by villagers across the border in Bangladesh captures what has gone wrong with the Centre's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA).

Launched with fanfare on October 2, 2014, throughout the country as a national movement, it had aimed to achieve the vision of a 'clean India' by the same date in 2019. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) conducted in 2019-21 has proved that the country is still far from achieving the goal.

Despite cash grants, half of rural Indians in the northern heartland states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh still continue to defecate in the open.

In contrast, India's two tiny neighbours have come a long way in this regard. By the time SBA was launched, open defecation was a forgotten memory in Bangladesh. Nepal saw 85% of its homes build an improved toilet each by 2016.

While you come across a narrative in the mainstream media of India being in the midst of a tech and financial revolution, more and more Indians embracing digital transactions, online communications and e-commerce, the country poised to capture the third place world ranking in terms of the GDP, businesses eyeing a burgeoning middle-class and self-congratulation for 25 crore citizens moving out of multidimensional poverty (on the basis of a tweaked index), the vast hinterland presents a grim picture. It is one of deprivation of basic life facilities.