The study aims to measure the household and community costs and benefits of improved sanitation and hygiene implemented under the Swachh Bharat Mission, and to compare these in cost-benefit analysis. Costs include both financial and non-financial (in-kind) contributions of different parties.

Despite a substantial decline in poverty, an increase in access to water and sanitation and a large decline in open defecation, diarrhea and stunting rates in Pakistan show few signs of a decline.

According to the most recent joint monitoring program report for water and sanitation, sanitation coverage and usage has significantly progressed globally. The use of basic sanitation services has increased steadily between 2000 and 2015.

While rural Uttarakhand had been declared as Open Defecation Free (ODF) in June 2017, a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) that was tabled in the Uttarakhand assembly stated that the declaration of the state as ODF was “incorrect”.

A year after the Gujarat government declared that the state has become open defecation-free (ODF), the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its latest report has dismissed the claim, saying “it does not appear to be correct”.

This report is the culmination of a study conducted by the Accountability Initiative (AI) on Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin in 2017 on the request of the Udaipur district administration. The study understands the outcomes, and the processes, which led to Open Defecation Free status in selected Gram Panchayats.