India's Toilet-Building Revolution

India has experienced a revolution in toilet-building. Before Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, just under 40 percent of the country's population had access to a household toilet, a situation he vowed to change by investing billions of dollars. He launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan ("Clean India") campaign on October 2, 2014 with the goal of eliminating open defecation and manual scavenging within five years.

In early October 2020, Modi announced to a crowd in Ahmedabad city that India is now free of open defecation with 110 million toilets built in five years and 600 million people gaining access to them. This infographic uses date from the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation to show how India's toilet coverage has climbed to 100 percent since the launch of the project.