Sanitation is a key living standards indicator in the Multidimensional Poverty Index. Households are considered deprived if they practice open defecation, share toilets, or lack systems that safely manage waste, reflecting concerns of hygiene, disease, privacy, and dignity.

Yet the indicator often measures construction, not functionality. Toilets built under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan may exist on paper but remain unusable due to lack of water, poor maintenance, or alternative use as storage spaces. Despite this, such households are classified as non-deprived, allowing the reality of unsafe sanitation to remain invisible in the data.