A/HRC/45/10/Add.2 Equally, efforts focused on rigorous measures to count the number of toilets and the number of administrative units that are open defecation free needed to be combined with efforts to monitor populations that do not have access to sanitation facilities (A/HRC/39/55/Add.1, para. 21). 37. Narrowing the gap and disparity between open defecation free status and the reality of access to toilets still faces challenges. The National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey 201819 examined the coverage of toilets in a village which has been granted open defecation free status. Respondents from the State of Bihar reported that the coverage of sanitation is low with 60.1 per cent, although, 90.5 per cent of respondents in the State of Bihar reported that they live in open defecation free certified villages.17 Additionally, interview with village officials conducted in 2018 in multiple states indicated that village officials are often pressured by higher-level officials to report ODF status even if only 80 per cent of households own latrines. The study also revealed that several villages had abandoned building toilets or monitoring their use after achieving open defecation free status.18 38. However, a notable improvement is the effort to identify households and populations that have been left behind in the Clean Mission India. As part of the monitoring of Phase II, guidelines require households that have been left behind in the initial phase of the Mission to be identified (“No One Left Behind” programme).19 PROGRESS ON-GOING: The Special Rapporteur welcomes the efforts made by the Government to monitor populations that do not have access to sanitation facilities; however, further emphasizes should be placed in identifying vulnerabilities faced by those groups and their need to public support to be able to provide public financial support to allow them to enjoy their human right to sanitation. E. Recommendation on disaggregation of data RECOMMENDATION 11: “Disaggregate data by wealth level, migratory status, ethnic group, scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and other grounds of discrimination, identifying patterns of inequality, as such information may have an impact on the formulation of national policies;” (A/HRC/39/55/Add.1, para. 71 (r)). 39. The Special Rapporteur’s findings from the visit revealed that several determinants have a heightened likelihood of predicting where or why people have lower quality access to adequate water and sanitation services: disability, gender, caste, tribe, poverty, place of residence (urban or rural) and land tenure (especially in urban areas, e.g. residence in formal vs. informal settlements), among others (A/HRC/39/55/Add.1, para. 57). In order to address inequalities in access, the Special Rapporteur highlighted the importance of collecting and analyzing data disaggregated by wealth level, migratory status, ethnic group and other grounds of discrimination, as such information may have an impact on the formulation of national policies and prioritization of those in vulnerable situations (A/HRC/39/55/Add.1, para. 58). 40. Since the visit in 2017, the Government has taken steps towards collecting disaggregated data, albeit with limitations. The notable example is the National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey 2018-19, which prioritizes calculating toilet access per household, but also collects data about respondents. In describing the characteristics of respondents to the survey, data was presented about the caste, gender, and income of respondents, but the categories used to describe these factors lack sufficient detail. For example, for the element of income, the categories were “above poverty line”, “below poverty line”, and “don’t know”.20 Most importantly, analysis of how these factors impacted access to toilets was not presented. 17 18 19 20 10 National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey 2018-19, 63. Gupta, A. et al., Changes in open defecation in rural north India: 2014 - 2018 (2019), 15. Swachh Bharat Mission – Phase II Guidelines (2020), 18. National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey 2018-19, 64.