A/HRC/34/51/Add.1 considering the number of people who are still without access to even shared facilities in their homes and communities. Approximately 130 million individuals (10 per cent of the country’s population) in cities continue to practise open defecation, despite decreases in the past 15 years. In rural areas, open defecation is at 61 per cent, down from 91 per cent in 1990.46 58. In 2014, the Government set an ambitious target to end open defecation by 2019 under the Swachh Bharat Mission. That is to be achieved by building new toilets, ensuring reconstruction of dysfunctional toilets and changing behaviours, and is to be funded through cost-sharing between the central and state governments. Four states were put at the centre of the initiative, in view of their high open defecation levels in the 2011 census: Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan. 59. Open defecation has dramatic consequences for public health and is regularly linked with extreme poverty, malnutrition and stunting, and with perpetuating cycles of disease, as well as social exclusion. It is associated with many preventable diseases and conditions, such as diarrhoea, that result in death, particularly of children. It also places girls and women at higher risk of sexual harassment and violence. G. Natural disasters 60. Millions of people in rural and urban India have been displaced as a result of natural disasters, including earthquakes, floods and cyclones. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, between 2008 and 2014, India had the third highest number in the world of people displaced owing to natural disasters, nearly 30 million people. Vulnerability to natural disasters is particularly acute because large segments of the population live in inadequate housing. 61. In 2005, the Government created a National Disaster Management Authority and passed the National Disaster Management Act (2005). Neither the Act nor the Authority has ensured that people affected by disaster are provided with adequate post-disaster housing. Generally speaking, alternative housing is rarely provided to persons affected by disaster. When compensation is provided, it is insufficient to rebuild homes, which results in families becoming indebted, or it is only available to those living in “notified slums”.47 IV. Discrimination and social exclusion 62. Discrimination and inequality in terms of access to and the availability of adequate housing and land were repeatedly raised with the Special Rapporteur as issues of concern. Discrimination includes not only actions or omissions by all government authorities, but also the lack of effective mechanisms to ensure protection from an array of private entities, such as private landlords, developers, megaproject construction companies and extractive industries. A. Women 63. Women, especially widows, single women, women from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and elderly women face multiple discrimination in access, control, 46 47 UNICEF and WHO, “Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation”. The term refers to all areas in a town or city notified as “slums” by the State or subnational governments under any Act. 15