Abstract: Access to drinking water and sanitation is both a human rights issue and a key development challenge that has profound health implications. This study probes into the current scenario access to safe drinking water and sanitation in India, analyzes the progress made in last decades, and also evaluates its impact on infant mortality rate and child mortality rate. Applying Principal Component Analysis (PCA), the study aims to construct a comprehensive measure of sanitation. The index of sanitation so derived has been then used in regression analysis- to investigate its impact on health, and also in cluster analysis- to prepare typology of sanitation and health.