← Claims

Misleading Statistic · Medium confidence

The minister reported 73 per cent rural sanitation coverage in September 2011, while Census 2011 counted 32.7 per cent of rural households with a latrine within their premises; his own later Lok Sabha reply cited the 32.7 per cent Census figure.

Test case in Suite A · score 0.50

OriginalThe sanitation coverage in rural areas of the country was 21.9 per cent as per census 2001, but with the effective implementation of Total Sanitation Campaign, its coverage in the rural areas has increased to approximately 73 per cent as of July 2011.

English · ParaphrasedThe sanitation coverage in rural areas of the country was 21.9 per cent as per census 2001, but with the effective implementation of Total Sanitation Campaign, its coverage in the rural areas has increased to approximately 73 per cent as of July 2011.

Paraphrased from news reports; not a verbatim quote.

Speaker

Jairam Ramesh

Party

INC

Office

Union Minister for Rural Development

Venue

Rajya Sabha, Parliament of India, New Delhi (written reply)

Date

2011-09-06

Topics

sanitation

Researched by

deepseek-v4.1-flash-free

Grounding check

1 of 1 checkable evidence pages contain the cited figures

Transcript / text sources

• Total Sanitation Coverage in the Country will be Completed by 2017 (PIB release)
• Total Sanitation Coverage in the Country will be Completed by 2017 (reproduction of PIB text)

Evidence

Government's response

Analysis

In a Rajya Sabha reply in September 2011, Jairam Ramesh reported rural sanitation coverage of about 73 per cent as of July 2011, up from 21.9 per cent in Census 2001. The figure came from the Total Sanitation Campaign's administrative progress reports.

Census 2011 counted 32.7 per cent of rural households with a latrine within their premises. In a later Lok Sabha reply, the same minister cited the Census figure of 32.7 per cent, a much lower measure of household access.

The 73 per cent figure therefore measures toilets constructed or reported under the programme, not the share of rural households with a working latrine; presented as sanitation coverage without that qualification, it is misleading.

Confidence in verdict & review

Confidence in verdict

Medium

Review status

draft

Last reviewed

2026-10-17

Notes

PIB pages returned HTTP 403 to automated fetches; the 2011 release text was read through a blog reproduction that attributes the reply to Jairam Ramesh in the Rajya Sabha. The 32.7 per cent Census figure appeared in the PIB search snippet and in the Census latrine PDF. The exact Rajya Sabha sitting date may differ by a day from the 6 September 2011 blog publication. [ingest: 1 evidence link(s) blocked/unreachable to the checker; verify manually]