Why do so many rural north Indians defecate in the open?

Using cleaner fuels such as LPG is essential to reduce rural air pollution and improve health. What can policymakers do to achieve exclusive use of clean fuels in rural India?

The Swachh Bharat Mission has turned out to be a top-down programme in which villagers are often coerced into building latrines, with relatively little focus on latrine use.

Coercive and threatening tactics were used in all of the states to compel people to build and use latrines.

Rural India’s overlooked crisis of outdoor air pollution

Pit emptying must become central to India’s efforts to eliminate open defecation.

Eleven of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, which went to polls this month.