Facts India | India True Fact

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 600 million people or 55 per cent of Indians still do not have access to toilets. About 54.71 per cent of urban slums have no toilet facility and most free community toilets built by the government are rendered unusable because of the lack of maintenance, the UNDP report for 2009 said.

According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) data, an estimated 400,000 children under five years of age die each year due to diarrhoea and other infections caused by poor sanitation and hygiene which is largely because of open defecation of waste that contaminates drinking water.