India to track toilet use with tablets

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is launching a nationwide online programme to check whether people are using toilets as part of his cleanliness drive.

From this month, officials will head out with mobile phones, tablets and iPads to report on whether toilets are being used in rural India, with results uploaded onto a website in real time.

India's shortage of toilets costs the country more than $50 billion (Dh183.5bn) a year, mostly through premature deaths and hygiene-related diseases, according a World Bank study.

India suffers a greater cost than other Asian countries from the poor collection of human excreta, the study found.