Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday declared that rural India is now open defecation-free (ODF).
Speaking at the ‘Swachchh Bharat Diwas’ event in Ahmedabad, Modi said, “Today rural India and its villages have declared themselves ‘open defecation free’.”
“In 60 months, we have provided toilets to over 60 crore people by constructing over 11 crore toilets. The world is amazed at our success,” Modi said.
“However, this achievement is just a milestone and we should not stop here. The movement has to continue,” the PM added.
“Today, rural India has declared itself open defection-free. This is a great achievement of the Swachchh Bharat movement which has people’s participation,”
Modi said addressing village heads of 20,000 villages.
“On the call of Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom movement, people of the country mobilised for ‘satyagarah’ and they did the same now for swachhagrah,” Modi said.
It was on October 2, 2014, that the Prime Minister had launched the ambitious Swachchh Bharat (Clean India) campaign, setting the target of making India open defecation free by October 2, 2019.
“A clean India would be the best tribute India could pay to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150 birth anniversary in 2019,” Modi had said, while launching the campaign.
The campaign aimed to build 120 million toilets across the country by October 2, 2019. Its other goals included cleaning up streets and other public infrastructure, achieving 100 per cent door-to-door waste collection, building solid-waste management plants in each town, and persuading Indians to adopt better sanitation practices.
The Government claims that it has already constructed over 100 million of the 120 million toilets planned across the country.
However, experts say while the construction of toilets has increased, lack of water, poor maintenance and slow changes in behaviour have stood in the way of ending the practice.