Uttar Pradesh (UP), India’s most populous state with about 200 million people, has historically not performed well on sanitation. According to census figures from 2001 and 2011, the proportion of rural UP dwellers with a toilet increased slightly during the first decade of this century. However, the population grew as well, meaning that, overall, 13 million more people were defecating in the open in 2011.

Factors which have held back UP’s progress on sanitation include poverty, absence of a robust sanitation strategy, and lack of focus and determination from decision-makers.

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