In 2014, the Government of India launched the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) to resolve India’s sanitation bottlenecks and accelerate the development of sanitation markets. Targeting the elimination of open defecation through universal toilet access, over 5.5 million urban toilets have been built till date.

Eliminating open defecation is an important policy priority in India. In this article, Arya, George and Singh from the Centre for Policy Research, illustrate how using readily available geospatial data to estimate exposure to open defecation can help focus public investment and efforts in areas where it is needed the most.