The News Minute | September 22, 2014 | 04:30 pm IST

Building toilets will not help eliminate open defecation in India because many do not consider it important to use toilets, especially the men. 

The National Sample Survey (NSS) data has found that many households which have access to toilets do not use them, said The Hindu. From data by NSS, it was found that two per cent of rural households having access to toilets do not make use of them while researchers belonging to Research Institute for Compassionate Economics (RICE) said that seven percent of households with access to toilets don’t use them, said the report. 

However, men’s ‘personal preference’ to go out ‘in the fields’ and otherwise was the most common reason for them not using toilets, said the report. When RICE looked at households with atleast one member not using the toilet, the numbers rose to 18 per cent.

Hindu households lagged in terms of households having access and actually using the toilet. 47 per cent of Hindu households did not have toilets as compared to 31 per cent Muslim and 16 per cent Christian and Sikh households without toilets, said the report. 

However, NSSO statistics found that access to toilets increased as status of each class rose. Men have shown to make lower usage of the toilet compared to women, said the report.