Working on the principle that charity begins at home, the Centre has asked all the States to ensure that all their employees, including teachers, police personnel, anganwadi and ASHA workers have toilets in their homes.
The Union Water and Sanitation Ministry recently issued a directive to all the State Governments advising that all their staff should have such facilities within the next three months under the Swachchh Bharat Mission. The mission which was launched last October by Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to make the country open defecation free by 2019.
“As envisaged in the mission, the States have been encouraging as well as offering incentives to individuals for constructing toilets in their homes. But this job can be expedited if State Government employees become role models by having such basic facilities in their homes too,” a senior official from the Union Water and Sanitation Ministry said.
He explained that locals hold Government staff such as teachers, police personnel, anganwadi workers in high esteem. If they have toilets in their homes, they can inculcate among the locals a feeling and need for hygiene and cleanliness.
Under the mission, villages have also to be kept clean, including through solid and liquid waste management through gram panchayats. Water pipelines have to be laid in all villages enabling tap connections in households on demand by 2019. The States have also been advised to extensively use social media groups such as Whatsapp by involving State officials and all Deputy Commissioners/ other key stakeholders to constantly share ideas on the mission.
According to the Census 2011, about 72.2 per cent of the country’s population in 16.78 crore households stay in around 6,38,000 villages. Out of this, only 5.48 crore households (32.7 per cent) had access to toilets which means that 67.3 per cent of the rural households in the country still did not have access to sanitation facilities. later, as per the Baseline Survey, 2012-2013, carried out by the Ministry through the States, 40.35 per cent rural households have been found to have access to toilets.