New Delhi: More than nine crore toilets have been constructed across the country till February 5 this year under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G) launched in 2014, increasing the sanitation coverage in rural areas to over 98 per cent, the government said on Thursday. Giving out the details of toilets constructed under the mission, Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi said so far 27 states and 5.5 lakh villages have been declared open defecation free (ODF). He told the Lok Sabha on Thursday,
Under SBM(G), 9.16 crore toilets have been constructed till February 5, 2019. As a result, sanitation coverage in the rural areas of the country, which was 38.7 per cent on October 2, 2014, has increased to more than 98 per cent. Twenty-seven states, 601 districts, 5,934 blocks, 2,46,116 gram panchayats and 5,50,151 villages have been declared ODF.
The minister also said that since the launch of SBM-G in 2014, 9.16 crore individual household latrines (IHHLs) have been constructed till February 5 this year out of which, 5.22 crore IHHLs have been constructed during the last two years.
According to the government, the maximum funds under the SBM-G for the year 2018-19 were released to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar at Rs 6,592.64 crore and Rs 2,943.69 crore, respectively. The data provided by the government revealed that both the states received double amount of funds in 2018-19 compared to 2017-18.
The government had launched the SBM-G from October 2, 2014 with an aim to attain open defecation free (ODF) India by October 2, 2019, by providing access to toilet facilities to all rural households in the country.
The states and UTs which have been declared ODF are Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand.
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
