Chhattisgarh is among eight States and two Union Territories which have been declared completely Open Defecation Free (ODF), informs Economic Survey Report 2017-18 released by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely in the Parliament in New Delhi on Monday.
States of Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Daman & Diu and Chandigarh have been declared as ODF completely, it informed.
The surveys conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) and Quality Council of India (QCI) on usage of toilets by the individuals who have access to toilets reported more than 90 per cent of individuals using toilets in 2016 and 2017.
The Survey satisfactorily notes that there has been substantial reduction in the number of persons defecating in open in rural areas which has had positive health and economic impact in ODF areas. In a report, The Financial and Economic Impact of SBM in India’, UNICEF estimated that a household in an ODF village in rural India saves Rs 50,000 every year, it informed.
The number of persons defecating in open in rural areas, which were 55 crore in October, 2014 declined to 25 crore in January 2018. So far, 296 districts and 307,349 villages all over India have been declared ODF.