"The Colombo declaration of 4th South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN) states that the sanitation and hygiene situation in South Asia remains at a crisis point. The view point was taken in the backdrop of poor sanitation coverage in South Asian countries," Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said in a written reply.
Sanitation coverage in rural areas of the country was 21.9 per cent as per census 2001. That has gone up to 32.7 per cent as per census 2011 after accounting for the increase in number of households due to increase in population and fragmentation of households.
Government administers Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA), a comprehensive programme to facilitate states to ensure sanitation facilities in rural areas with the main objective of eradicating the practice of open defecation and ensuring clean environment, he said.
"To accelerate the progress of sanitation in rural areas under NBA, government has adopted the strategy of phased saturation approach for creation of Nirmal Grams," the Minister said.
Ramesh said the provision of incentive for individual Household Latrines has been extended to cover identified categories of Above Poverty Line (APL) households restricted to SCs/STs, small and marginal farmers, landless labourers with homestead, physically handicapped and women-headed households in addition to Below Poverty Line households.
