President Ram Nath Kovind Hails Amitabh Bachchan For His Role Towards Making India Open Defecation Free

Hailing Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan for his contribution towards making the country open defecation free (ODF), President Ram Nath Kovind said the television commercials featuring the actor had inspired crores of people.

We keep watching the advertisements of famous actor Amitabh Bachchanji on TV. There are two-three of such advertisements — one of the concepts being ‘Darwaza bandh toh bimari bandh’. Earlier also, we used to think that if we opened the (toilet) door, the diseases would spread. It was a scientific thought, the president told a function organised to declare urban Maharashtra ODF.

The Bollywood superstar was not present on the occasion.

The famous actor is doing these advertisements for free. Of all the stakeholders, who have been felicitated today for achieving the ODF status and who are working in that direction, Amitabh Bachchan’s contribution to the cause is no less. I want to congratulate him as well. Crores of people must have been inspired by his advertisements, he added.

Kovind said the mindset of the women in the rural areas today was such that they refused to get married if their in-laws’ house did not have a toilet and those married refused to go back to their in-laws’ house if there was no toilet.

During the Independence movement, wherever Gandhiji stayed, he used to clean the toilet there himself, Another mindset needs to be developed…whether it is an individual toilet or a public toilet, we should remember to keep it clean after using. Many a times, people refrain from using a public toilet thinking that it is in such a bad state that they would fall ill if they use it, he added.

Kovind said he was immensely satisfied to see a recent news report about a tribal woman in Chhattisgarh digging a six-foot pit for her daughters, without waiting for the government to build a toilet.

Fulfilling all the targets of the Swachh Bharat mission, which was launched on Gandhi Jayanti in 2014, will be a true tribute to the father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi, he added.

The president said diseases caused by uncleanliness affected the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country to the tune of 6.4 per cent. Sometimes, people may find it convenient to defecate in the open. But, its results are bad. When they fall sick, they realise that it would have been wiser to spend Rs 15,000 on a toilet than spending Rs 50,000 on the treatment of their child or wife, he said.

The poor suffer the most due to the diseases that spread due to uncleanliness. They fall sick, cannot work…we should take the required measures, which will ensure that we do not fall sick. We do not need to compromise on cleanliness, Kovind added.

Also Read: #DarwazaBand Campaign With Amitabh Bachchan And Anushka Sharma Promotes Use Of Toilets In Villages