On the occasion of World Toilet Day, November 19, Hartosh Singh Bal, Political Editor, The Caravan magazine, Prof Partha Mukhopadhyay, Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research and chair of the Centre’s Govt of India's NSSO Committee on Sanitation and Nitya Jacob, Convenor, Sustainable Sanitation Alliance discuss with Biraj Swain, Consulting Editor-Newslaundry and ICFJ Fellow, the status of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan three years after its launch by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

They discuss the WaterAid Report on the state of the world's toilets 2017, which claims that 732 million Indians do not have access to safe sanitation and 321 children are dying every day of diarrhoeal diseases. They speak on the Central government's reaction to the WaterAid report. The panellists said The Caravan's May cover story on Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan which took a close and detailed look at the programme in Varanasi, the prime minister's own constituency, his previous constituency in Ahmedabad's Maninagar and Delhi.

Prof Mukhopadhyay explains why behaviour change, water connectivity, sewage networks and financial transparency are crucial for this flagship programme. Hartosh Bal raises the problematic silence over caste in the programme and the lack of independent evaluation and Nitya Jacob calls for granular, robust studies, transparency in research methodologies and need for government's reception of the same.
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