The Role of Media in Shaping India’s Sanitation Narrative

Sanitation is not just a matter of public infrastructure – it is a public health emergency, a question of dignity, and one of India’s most persistent development challenges. According to the WHO, unsafe sanitation accounts for hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths each year, with children under five being the most vulnerable. India, home to over 1.4 billion people, has made remarkable strides over the past decade – yet the gap between official figures and ground realities remains wide. In this context, the role of media becomes not just important but indispensable. How India’s journalists, editors, and broadcasters frame, cover, and advocate around sanitation can directly influence public behaviour, policy pressure, and social change.

Why sanitation is a public health crisis – not just a hygiene issue 🔗

Before examining what the media does or should do, it is worth understanding what’s at stake. Poor sanitation in India is directly tied to cholera, typhoid, dysentery, and diarrhoeal diseases. UNICEF estimates that inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services in India’s health facilities contribute to a neonatal mortality rate of 24 deaths per 1,000 live births. Sepsis, largely spread through contaminated environments, accounts for 15 per cent of overall neonatal deaths.

The economic consequences are just as staggering. A major study cited by the WHO estimated that inadequate sanitation in India cost the equivalent of roughly 6.4% of the country’s GDP – a loss greater than the total GDP of all but five Indian states. These losses fall hardest on the poor, who are both the most exposed to poor sanitation and the least equipped to absorb its consequences. UNICEF points out that poor sanitation creates a ripple effect on national development – workers fall ill, earn less, and are unable to give their children a stable future.

Sanitation is also a deeply gendered issue. Women and girls face heightened health risks and safety concerns, including the threat of sexual violence, when forced to defecate in the open. Research published in PMC found that the absence of proper sanitation facilities causes psychosocial stress among women and girls – a dimension of the problem that mainstream media coverage still rarely addresses.

Media and the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: a complex relationship 🔗

The launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in October 2014 marked a turning point – not just in national sanitation policy, but in the volume and nature of media coverage around the issue. By framing sanitation as a flagship national mission, the government created conditions for sustained media attention. National sanitation coverage rose from 38.7% in 2014 to 65% in 2017 and 90% by August 2018, with 35 states and union territories declaring themselves open-defecation free (ODF) by September 2019.

Media played an active part in driving this narrative. According to ResearchGate, numerous advertisements, documentary films, and IEC (Information, Education, Communication) campaigns were produced and broadcast nationwide to raise awareness. Television proved to be among the most effective platforms, reaching mass audiences across linguistic and literacy barriers. Social media emerged as a powerful supplementary tool, particularly in mobilising younger demographics.

Print media contributed its share too. A study examining coverage in Dainik Bhaskar and Rajasthan Patrika found that both newspapers played a meaningful role in spreading awareness about the SBM campaign, though the study also noted that sanitation news was often given less prominent page placement than it deserved. More importantly, the research highlighted that photographs significantly increase reader impact – yet many sanitation stories were published without accompanying visuals.

A peer-reviewed analysis in PMC noted that the SBM took an unusually modern approach to communications – engaging journalists, academics, and development partners through social media, high-profile events, and personal outreach. District officials were trained to use communication technologies to accelerate progress. This integration of media strategy into governance was a notable shift, one that the media largely facilitated.

Where media coverage falls short 🔗

Despite the scale of coverage during SBM’s peak years, media reporting on sanitation in India has suffered from some consistent and serious shortcomings.

Over-reliance on government narratives 🔗

Much of India’s sanitation coverage has been driven by government announcements rather than independent field reporting. When the SBM declared villages open-defecation free, many outlets ran those figures without scrutiny. Yet independent researchers noted significant uncertainty about how ODF status was verified: one study found that out of eight villages with universal sanitation coverage in 2018, only one was officially declared ODF. Building toilets and changing behaviour are two different things – as UNICEF and the Population Reference Bureau have pointed out, many constructed toilets went unused or were repurposed for storage. Media that uncritically amplified official figures missed this crucial gap.

Inadequate coverage of marginalised communities 🔗

India’s sanitation crisis does not affect all communities equally. Rural women, Dalit communities, tribal populations, and urban slum dwellers bear the sharpest burden. A 2024 study in Scientific Reports confirmed that utilisation of improved sanitation facilities still fails to reach optimal levels across all socioeconomic groups, particularly the poorest households. Media coverage, however, has disproportionately focused on aggregate national targets and government milestones, while the voices and experiences of marginalised communities remain largely absent from sanitation stories.

Low priority in regional and vernacular media 🔗

A content analysis of Kannada-language newspapers Prajavani and Vijaya Karnataka found that sanitation coverage accounted for less than 0.5% of total articles during the studied period – despite Karnataka’s sanitation coverage being critically low at the time. Regional newspapers, which have immense influence over local readers and policymakers, are not giving sanitation the prominence the issue demands. The same pattern holds in many other Indian-language media markets.

Surface-level reporting without systemic analysis 🔗

Research on health journalism in India published in PMC notes that studies have cautioned against “inadequate, misleading or incomplete news reporting” as a direct public health threat – such reporting can lead people to make misguided choices or push policymakers towards harmful decisions. Sanitation reporting in India often describes problems without explaining root causes: why do people still defecate in the open even when toilets exist? What infrastructure gaps remain in secondary cities? How does open defecation perpetuate child malnutrition? These deeper questions rarely make it into mainstream coverage.

The public health stakes of irresponsible reporting 🔗

The consequences of poor reporting are not just editorial – they are public health consequences. A study in the Global Media Journal concluded that awareness – enabled through multiple media channels and participatory approaches – is the most effective lever for changing sanitation behaviour. When media fails to deliver accurate, contextualised, and community-relevant information, it directly undermines behaviour change efforts. The gap between toilet construction and toilet use in India is, at least partly, a communication failure – and media bears some responsibility for it.

A study on WASH disparities in India published in ScienceDirect highlights that the northeastern and western regions of the country continue to lag behind on multiple WASH indicators, often due to a combination of low government investment and low public awareness. Media coverage that is concentrated in Hindi-belt states and national capitals leaves these regions invisible – which in turn reduces political pressure to address their specific challenges.

What responsible sanitation journalism looks like 🔗

The media’s potential to drive real sanitation change is significant – but it requires deliberate, informed, and advocacy-oriented journalism. Several approaches can make coverage more effective.

Specialised training for health and sanitation reporters 🔗

Sanitation intersects with public health, infrastructure planning, gender, caste, and climate – it is not a beat for generalists reporting without context. Investing in specialised training for journalists covering WASH issues produces more accurate, nuanced, and actionable stories. A study by Nayeem Showkat published in SAGE Journals found that a group of WASH journalists from South Asia established a regional network called WASH Media-South Asia as early as 2011 – a cross-border initiative that improved both the quality and volume of coverage across the region. India needs more such structured communities of practice for sanitation journalists.

Data-driven, independent reporting 🔗

Journalists should go beyond government press releases and engage with independent datasets – district-level NFHS figures, WASH tracking portals, and peer-reviewed public health research – to identify which communities are still being left behind. Connecting data to human stories makes reporting both accurate and emotionally compelling, without sacrificing rigour.

Amplifying community voices and success stories 🔗

Alongside investigative and critical reporting, there is an important role for solution journalism – stories that show what works and why. Communities that have successfully transitioned to open-defecation-free status through collective action and behavioural change represent models worth reporting in depth. When a Tamil Nadu village became the first in the state to be declared ODF under SBM, the media coverage not only honoured that achievement but created a replicable model for other communities. More such stories, grounded in the voices of community members themselves, can shift both public perception and policymaker behaviour.

Consistent, long-term coverage – not crisis journalism 🔗

Sanitation coverage in India tends to spike around World Toilet Day, government announcements, or major outbreaks of waterborne disease – and then disappear. UNICEF’s sanitation programming in India has long been built around the principle of continuous community engagement and monitoring, not one-time interventions. Media should mirror this logic: sustained, regular coverage that follows up on earlier stories, tracks policy implementation, and holds institutions accountable over time.

Gender-sensitive and inclusive framing 🔗

Sanitation journalism must centre the experiences of women, girls, and marginalised communities – not as passive victims, but as knowledgeable actors with specific needs and perspectives. Coverage of menstrual hygiene management, the safety of community toilets for women at night, or the particular sanitation burden faced by Dalit manual scavengers brings into view dimensions of the crisis that aggregate numbers erase.

Media as a driver of India’s sanitation mission 🔗

India is still on the journey toward truly universal, safely managed sanitation – a commitment embedded in UN Sustainable Development Goal 6, which aims to ensure access to adequate and equitable sanitation for all by 2030. Phase 2 of the Swachh Bharat Mission, running through 2024-25, focuses on sustaining ODF status and improving solid and liquid waste management. Media’s role in this phase is no less critical than in Phase 1. The difference is that Phase 2 demands more than awareness-building – it demands accountability journalism that asks hard questions about implementation, equity, and lasting behavioural change.

The news media, as public health researchers have argued, has the power to shape both individual choices and policy directions. When coverage of sanitation is superficial, politicised, or episodic, it weakens the social momentum needed for transformation. When it is rigorous, inclusive, and sustained, it can amplify the work of communities, hold governments accountable, and accelerate India’s long-overdue sanitation revolution.

What do you think? Does India’s mainstream media give sanitation the critical, sustained attention it deserves – or does coverage remain too tied to government announcements and campaign cycles? And how can regional, vernacular media be better equipped and incentivised to bring sanitation stories from underserved communities into the national conversation?

References

1. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/sanitation
2. https://www.unicef.org/india/what-we-do/water-sanitation-hygiene
3. https://www.who.int/southeastasia/news/speeches/detail/the-health-and-economic-cost-of-poor-sanitation
4. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8552289/
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swachh_Bharat_Mission
6. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340665760_Striking_role_of_Media_SWATCH_BHARAT
7. https://turcomat.org/index.php/turkbilmat/article/download/5619/4709/10435
8. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6782037/
9. https://www.prb.org/resources/water-sanitation-hygiene-and-malnutrition-in-india/
10. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-80949-3
11. https://www.academia.edu/26861219/NEWS_COVERAGE_OF_SANITATION_IN_KANNADANEWSPAPERS_A_CONTENT_ANALYSIS
12. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7381929/
13. https://www.globalmediajournal.com/open-access/a-study-on-the-impact-of-sanitation-program-and-its-campaign-with-special-reference-to-swachchh-bharat-abhiyan.php?aid=87748
14. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844024136778
15. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244016675395
16. https://www.unicef.org/india/topics/sanitation