As many as 8.8 crore toilets have been built in rural area in India and the country is "well on track" to achieve the open defecation-free (ODF) status by October next year, an official said Monday.
Secretary, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Parameswaran Iyer, made the remarks at an event held here to mark the 150th birth anniversary year of Mahatma Gandhi, which also coincided with the World Toilet Day.
"Since the inception of the Swachh Bharat Mission, the rural sanitation coverage of India has increased significantly, from 39 per cent in October 2014 to over 96 per cent today. Over 8.8 crore household toilets have been built by rural Indians under the mission. As a result, 26 states and Union Territories, 530 districts, and 5.2 lakh villages have declared themselves free from open defecation," he said.
He also said the number of people practising open defecation in rural India has gone down from "550 million in October 2014, to less than 200 million today through the progress made under the Swachh Bharat Mission.
"As we celebrate the World Toilet Day today, I am very happy to share that India is well on track to achieve ODF status by October 2, 2019, which would be the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhi," he said.
A clean and ODF India would be a rightful tribute to Gandhi next year.
"From now onwards and after October 2, 2019, our aim would be to sustain the status we would achieve, and to move to ODF-plus initiatives, such as the solid and liquid waste management, including waste-to-wealth initiatives like Gobardhan scheme," the secretary said.
The Swachh Bharat Mission was launched by the government on October 2, 2014.
"A clean India would be an apt tribute to Gandhiji, and to quote him -- 'An ideal Indian village will be so constructed as to lend itself to perfect sanitation'," Iyer said.
On the sidelines of the event, Iyer said, "A couple of programmes were held to mark the World Toilet Day today. I, along with the NITI Aayog CEO, went to a village in Firozpur in Uttar Pradesh and emptied a pit for a toilet.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
