Terming the railway tracks as the "largest toilet" in the world, former Union Minister and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh today said all political parties should come together to check the problem of open defecation.
Over two crore people use its 60,000 coaches having 2.4 lakh toilets everyday and the excreta falls on tracks, Ramesh said at a programme here today on the problems of open defecation.
"According to experts, this excreta damages tracks and leads to accidents. We need to check the problem of open defecation in the country and all political parties need to come together for this," he said.
"We need to free India of 'defecation in the open' in the next five to 10 years. It's a very big challenge and the work needs to begin from village panchayats.
"We started 'Nirmal Bharat' programme to get rid 2.5 lakh panchayats of this problem. But till now only eight to 10 per cent of panchayats are free from open defecation," Ramesh said.
He said so far only Sikkim and Kerala have got rid of this problem and work has progressed much in Maharashtra where one-third of panchayats have checked defecation in open.
Praising Bihar for speedy progress on the front over the last four years, Ramesh said at this rate the state can hope to tackle the problem by 2022 or 2023.
Speaking at a programme on "Changing behaviour, creating sanitation by changing leaders", he advocated for involving panchayat representatives and women organisations for this purpose.
Actress Vidya Balan, the hygiene ambassador of the country, exhorted people to take a pledge to do everything to construct toilets at home.
Balan, who has been campaigning against open defecation, said she feels encouraged when reports come about girls refusing to marry in homes with no toilets.
Actor-turned-BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha said it was worrisome that talks were needed about hygiene and toilets even after 68 years of Independence.
"I am astonished to know that 68 per cent families in Bihar have no toilets. We need to discuss these things openly and act on it," Sinha said.
Pehel Chief Executive Officer Anand Madhav said the organisation will construct community toilets in 200 villages of Bhagalpur district.
