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The practice of defecating in fields, forests, water bodies or other open spaces rather than into a toilet — the lowest rung of the global sanitation ladder.
Open defecation is the disposal of human faeces in fields, forests, bushes, open water bodies, beaches or other open spaces instead of into a toilet. In the sanitation ladder used by the WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, which tracks progress on Sustainable Development Goal 6, it is the lowest rung, below unimproved, limited, basic and safely managed sanitation. It matters far beyond dignity and convenience: faeces left in the open contaminate drinking water and food, spreading diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid and worm infections, and repeated infection in early childhood is linked to stunting and to deaths among under-fives. India ran the world's largest sanitation campaign against it — the Swachh Bharat Mission, launched on 2 October 2014 — and rural India was declared open defecation free on 2 October 2019, after more than 110 million household toilets were built. Survey data since then show that the practice has fallen sharply but has not disappeared, which is why the mission's second phase focuses on sustaining that status.
Type: PhenomenonDefined by the JMP as disposal of faeces in fields, forests, bushes, open water bodies, beaches or other open spaces — the bottom of the sanitation ladder
Targeted by SDG 6.2, which calls for adequate and equitable sanitation for all and an end to open defecation by 2030
Driven by more than the absence of toilets — habit and preference, notions of ritual purity around pit emptying, water scarcity, poor construction and broken or unusable toilets all keep it alive
Health consequences: diarrhoeal disease, cholera and typhoid, intestinal worms, and chronic exposure linked to child stunting and under-five mortality
Social consequences: risk to the safety and dignity of women and girls, and school absence among adolescent girls where toilets are missing
Unequally distributed — access is lowest among the poorest households and among Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe households
Measurement gap — 'ODF' status is declared through official reporting on the mission's management information system, while household surveys such as the NFHS record what people actually do, and the two do not always agree
Frequency: A standing topic in UPSC Prelims and Mains GS-2 on government schemes and social sector performance, and common in SSC and banking papers for its dates and numbers
India has run sanitation campaigns since the 1980s, each larger and differently designed than the last; the Swachh Bharat Mission's distinguishing feature was scale plus an emphasis on behaviour change rather than subsidy alone.
Swachh Bharat Mission launched on 2 October, with rural and urban arms and a five-year deadline
Rural India declared open defecation free on 2 October, after more than 100 million household toilets were built
SBM-Gramin Phase II begins, shifting the goal from ODF to ODF Plus — sustaining the status and adding solid and liquid waste management
SBM-Urban 2.0 launched, aiming at garbage-free cities alongside sanitation
JMP estimates about 17 per cent of India's rural population still practising open defecation, against an roughly 85 per cent decline since 2000
As on 10 February, 4,96,180 of 5,86,944 villages reported as ODF Plus; Phase II runs to 2026-27
2 October 2014
2 October 2019
More than 110 million (11 crore)
2020-21 to 2026-27
4,96,180 of 5,86,944 villages
5,29,231 villages
5,46,487 villages
39.8% (NFHS-4, 2015-16) to 17.8% (NFHS-5, 2019-21)
About 17 per cent of the rural population
Sanitation is the rare public health intervention whose benefits are collective rather than individual: one household's toilet protects the neighbourhood's water, and one household's open defecation undoes part of the gain. That is why economists treat open defecation as a negative externality and why India's programme aimed at whole villages rather than individual families. The measurable payoffs are in diarrhoeal disease, child stunting and under-five mortality, along with time saved and the safety of women and girls. The honest caveat, and the one examiners reward, is the gap between declaration and practice: administrative data record villages as ODF, while household surveys still find open defecation, especially among the poorest and among Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe households. Sustaining the gain now depends on unglamorous work — emptying twin pits, repairing toilets, supplying water, managing faecal sludge and greywater, and countering the caste-linked stigma that makes households reluctant to handle their own pits.
Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti
Implements Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) and maintains the mission's management information system
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
Implements Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) and conducts Swachh Survekshan
WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP)
Tracks global water, sanitation and hygiene progress and reports on SDG 6 using the sanitation ladder
Gram Panchayat
Declares and verifies ODF status locally and runs village-level waste management under Phase II
Ending open defecation is an explicit global target: Sustainable Development Goal 6.2 asks countries to achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and to end open defecation by 2030, with progress measured by the WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme against a five-rung sanitation ladder — open defecation, unimproved, limited, basic and safely managed. India's contribution to global progress has been decisive simply because of its size: open defecation in India fell by roughly 85 per cent between 2000 and 2022, which moved the world figure more than any other country's effort. The unfinished agenda, in India as elsewhere, has shifted from building toilets to the higher rungs of the ladder — safely managed sanitation, where waste is treated rather than merely contained.
Open defecation = disposal of faeces in the open; the lowest rung of the JMP sanitation ladder; targeted by SDG 6.2 (end by 2030)
SBM launched 2 October 2014; rural India declared ODF on 2 October 2019; over 11 crore household toilets built
SBM-G Phase II: 2020-21 to 2026-27, focused on ODF sustainability plus solid and liquid waste management
ODF Plus tiers: Aspiring (SWM or LWM), Rising (both), Model (both plus visual cleanliness)
As on 10 February 2026: 4,96,180 of 5,86,944 villages ODF Plus; top states Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh
Households without a toilet fell from 39.8% (NFHS-4) to 17.8% (NFHS-5); JMP put rural open defecation at about 17% in 2022
Access is lowest among the poorest and among SC and ST households — the equity gap is the standard critique
Rural arm under the Ministry of Jal Shakti; urban arm under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, with ODF, ODF+ and ODF++ certifications and Swachh Survekshan
The WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme defines it as disposal of human faeces in fields, forests, bushes, open water bodies, beaches or other open spaces, rather than into a toilet. It is the lowest rung of the sanitation ladder.
Rural India was declared open defecation free on 2 October 2019 on the basis of official reporting. Household surveys since then still record some open defecation — the JMP estimated about 17 per cent of the rural population in 2022 — so the mission's second phase focuses on sustaining ODF status.
ODF Plus means a village has sustained its ODF status and also has waste management. It has three tiers: Aspiring (solid or liquid waste management), Rising (both) and Model (both plus visual cleanliness).
The rural arm, SBM-Gramin, is run by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation under the Ministry of Jal Shakti. The urban arm, SBM-Urban, is run by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
Faeces in the open contaminate water and food, so young children suffer repeated intestinal infections. Chronic infection damages the gut and diverts nutrition away from growth, so children fall short of their expected height even when food intake looks adequate.