Five Facts about Poop in India

Toilets and poop aren’t often subjects of discussion, or blogs for that matter, but they are major global issues. India is the country that has the largest amount of people who don’t use toilets – and all that poop is causing some very serious problems. Something big is about to change in India – UNICEF is working to spark a new social movement for toilets, and it’s going to make a big splash.

Before we reveal what it’s all about, here are five facts about poop in India to get to started.

Using toilets can save lives.

When people don’t use toilets, kids are exposed to poop in their environment, and they can pick up diseases like diarrhoea, which kills almost 400 children under five in India every day.

A stadium of poop

Every day, around 100,000 tons of poop end up in the open — an amount that would fill London’s Wembley stadium.

A thought to po(o)nder:

Half the population in India, around 564 million people, do not yet use a toilet. Instead, they go out in the open.



A movement to end all (public) movements.

Ending “open defecation” (when people go in the open) is not just about access to toilets, it’s about generating a demand for them and making sure they are used. So UNICEF India are starting a social movement, Team Swachh, to end public movements.

Ending open defecation is more than a number 2 priority.

That’s why Team Swachh is dedicated to making number two’s everyone’s number one in India during this year’s T20 World Cup and beyond.

Read about children and cricket teaming up for a cleaner India

Angus Ingham works with the Brand team at UNICEF HQ. He wrote this while on mission in India.