Which among the following is the most crucial message conveyed by the above passage?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) People have to perceive toilet use and pit-emptying as clean and not polluting.
The passage finds two reasons why people avoid toilets — ideas of purity and pollution, and dislike of emptying pits — and says these must be confronted to end open defecation. So people's view of toilet use and pit-emptying as polluting has to change.
- ✗ (a) The passage says these ideas 'have to be confronted and dealt' with, which assumes they can change, not that they are permanent.
- ✓ (b) The two barriers are notions of pollution and reluctance to empty pits; confronting them means people must come to see toilet use and pit-emptying as clean.
- ✗ (c) Too sweeping; the passage's point is that the practice can be ended if its causes are tackled.
- ✗ (d) Civic sense and privacy are not discussed; the reasons given are purity-pollution beliefs and pit-emptying.
Remember · When a passage names the causes of a problem and says they must be confronted, the crucial message concerns changing those very causes.
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2017, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·