Even as many States continue to struggle to create awareness about sanitation among their residents, Sikkim has done remarkably well to become India’s cleanest State in the country, as per a recent Government survey on sanitation and cleanliness.
Jharkhand has been placed at the bottom as per the “Swachh Survekshan, 2016” survey which was conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) between May and June 2015 covering 73,176 households in 3,788 villages across the country.
led by Sikkim, Kerala, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur
and Meghalaya make up the top 10 list.
The Himalayan State in North-Eastern region is the only State which has achieved open defecation free status in the country so far. In fact all the 446 sikkim villages in four districts and 16 sub divisions have been declared as open defecation free villages as per central guidelines.
In fact, its four districts — West Sikkim district,East Sikkim district , South Sikkim district and North Sikkim districts — have been ranked among top 10 districts of the country among shortlisted 75 best performing districts in the rural areas which were evaluated at different level of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation.
The results were released by Union Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar at an event here recently.
As per the report, Sikkim scored the highest ranking of 98.2 per cent on a scale of 100 in the ranking given on the basis of percentage of households having sanitary toilets.
All 6,10,577 inhabitants in Sikkim have latrines with high sanitation and hygiene standards and 100 per cent people of the Himalayan State are using household/community toilets in the state. Over 98 per cent household are not only having sanitary toilets but access to them as well, as per the report