New Delhi: The Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) will celebrate the World Toilet Day on Monday with mass awareness and mobilisation activities across different states and districts.
The focus is on usage of toilets, which is closely linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for a Swachh Bharat by October 2019.
The central part of the day's celebrations is the the Swachh Bharat World Toilet Day Contest 2018 among all districts by organizing grassroots activities involving district, block and panchayat level teams, swachhagrahis and swachhata champions, an official statement here said.
The objective is to engage with communities and reaffirm the national resolve to a sustain the Sanitation achievement. States and districts are working on a competitive mode since November 9 with a range of innovative activities centred around Toilets and Swachhata creating unprecedented momentum in the country which is expected to culminate with mega initiatives tomorrow.
Since the inception of the Swachh Bharat Mission, the rural sanitation coverage of India has increased significantly, from 39 per cent in October 2014 to over 96 per cent today. Over 8.8 crore household toilets have been built by rural Indians.
As a result, 25 states/Union Territories, 530 districts, and over 5.2 lakh villages have declared themselves free from open defecation.
The number of people practicing open defecation in rural India has gone down from 550 million in 2014, to less than 100 million today through the progress made under the Swachh Bharat Mission.
In recognition to the work done by the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen), the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, is receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Toilet Summit in Mumbai tomorrow. (UNI)