The Economic Times, 06 October 2014
On October 2, amidst all the brooms and sweeping, little attention was given to a big challenge — India leads the world in open defecation (OD) with about 600 million people defecating in the open every day. This is 60% of total OD in the world, although Indians are only 17% of the world's population. It is more than the OD in all sub-Saharan Africa. OD is a cause of stunting. As a result, though poorer, Africans are on average taller than Indians.
This also means that close to 300 million Indian women and young girls sit out in the open, often in heat, cold and rain, and under constant threat of being watched, molested and raped.
OD causes under-nutrition on account of poor absorption, it damages immune systems, leads to poor school performance, and generally impairs mental development — reducing future earnings and human capital. Read more....