Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Friday picked up a broom to clean an area in the cyclone-hit port city of Visakhapatnam, as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swach Bharat campaign.
On Friday, Naidu said India's iconic freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi had made inspiring statement that "cleanliness is next to godliness."
"According to the World Health Organisation, because of lack of hygiene, every average Indian is having (bearing) cost of 6500 rupees ($ 106.185) additionally on health. So, this is a very serious issue. So, we should take care to see that our premises, our neighbourhood is kept clean. It should be a daily movement," said Naidu.
Naidu added India can only be cleaned with the efforts put in by all citizens, who should volunteer with the aim to improve health problems.
"This should be a people's movement; all citizens should take part in this cleaning mission. That is the purpose of this programme. This is not a governmental programme, this is not a political programme and there should not be any politics in this. People themselves voluntarily joined together, clean up their houses , their premises , their neighbourhood, their temples, their schools, their offices, their establishments so that everything will appear clean and green. Clean and green will bring happiness and also health to the people," Naidu added.
Less than a third of India's 1.2 billion people have access to sanitation and more than 186,000 children under five die every year from diarrheal diseases caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation, according to the charity Water Aid.
The United Nations said in May half of India's people defecate outside - putting people at risk of cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A and typhoid.
The resulting diseases and deaths, mostly among the poor, cause major losses. The World Bank in 2006 estimated that India was losing 6.4 percent of gross domestic product annually because of poor sanitation.
