Since becoming Open Defecation- Free (ODF), Saragaon village in Raipur district of Chhattisgarh has recorded a reduction in loss of man-days from 83 per year earlier to 11 now, the Central Government has informed.
The average yearly health expenditure in the village has reduced by 85 per cent. Increasing demand for toilets leads to increasing demand for masonry services, it informed.
lack of proper sanitation leads to a less healthy and less productive population, leading to economic loss. A World Bank study estimates that the resulting loss to the Indian economy is 6.4 per cent of the GDP because of poor sanitation.
According to the london School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, India would save $19 billion worth of health care costs if everyone started washing their hands with soap before meals and after defecation.
The Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has started organizing virtual classrooms across the country to build capacities of district officials and members of the rural community to trigger behaviour change in their villages.
This initiative has helped achieve scale in capacity building in an efficient and economical manner and has helped spread best practices rapidly across the country.
The Swachchh App for mobile devices across Android, Apple and Windows phones has been very popular and useful to make the details of the progress of SBM-G readily accessible for all in real time.