Little under a fortnight ago, a research paper published in Nature revealed that the health benefits of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) promoting saturation coverage of toilets caused a sharp decline in infant mortality.
The paper estimates that around 60,000-70,000 infant lives are being saved annually because of this welfare programme, not to speak of the out-of-pocket spending by households on associated health costs.
Interesting coincidence that this acknowledgement comes on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the SBM on October 2.
To unpack the findings in the paper, StratNews Global spoke to Shamika Ravi, economist and member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.
Anil Padmanabhan has been a journalist for the last 36 years. He has worked in various capacities in several publications including Afternoon Despatch & Courier, Press Trust of India, Business Standard, Mint and was based in New York for India Today. He was a Nieman Fellow in 2001. He tweets at @capitalcalculus.
