Swachh Bharat push: 89 lakh toilets built in rural India in one year

NEW DELHI: Showing remarkable progress, 89 lakh individual household latrines have been built in rural areas in the past one year. According to government figures, the big Swachh Bharat push in rural areas has increased the access of toilets to 46.9 per cent from only 32.6 per cent in 2011 across the country . However, urban areas in poll-bound Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have built only 927 and 862 household latrines respectively since the sanitation mission was launched last October.

Urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu said that the rural development ministry has surpassed the target of building about 60 lakh toilets while he is confident of the target in urban areas would also be met by March 2016. Claiming that Swachh Bharat is the "mother of all new missions" he said that changing the mindset and attitude of people remains the biggest challenge. Stating that the message of complete sanitation has gone down well with people and has sensitised people, Naidu said the mission is "demand driven" in nature. "A clean India is the most profound statement that the county can make to the world which is keenly watching us in the context of various initiatives launched during the last over one year," he added.




Based on reports received till August, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana have performed better in respect of construction of individual household toilets.Against the target of construction of 25 lakh household toilets in urban areas till March, 16.45 lakh toilets have been completed or are nearing completion. States such as UP , Bihar and Tamil Nadu are still to pick up momentum. Naidu added that toilet construction is still to begin in five UTs, four northeastern states besides Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

However, referring to the enthusiasm on the part of several states, he said that over and above the central assistance of Rs 4,000 for construction of each toilet in urban areas, 13 states are providing additional assistance in the range of Rs 4,000 to Rs 13,000.

Regarding construction of community and public toilets in urban areas, Naidu said that as against the target of building one lakh toilet seats by March, 94,653 toilet seats has been taken up and 24,233 seats have already been built.