25-point Swachh roadmap by PM | Fusion - WeRIndia

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has suggested 25 points to promote his flagship Swachh Bharat Scheme. Some of the points he mentioned are building more urinals in urban areas, preparing a bank of quotes of famous people and their views on sanitation and focusing more on composting of urban waste.

PM Modi held a meeting to monitor the progress of his flagship scheme which he started in October, 2014. According to sources, Modi was satisfied with the progress in the construction of toilets. He even asked officials of rural sanitation and urban development ministries to find low-cost technology solutions to existing problems.

Modi also asked the ministries to promote success stories as part of encouragement for people and make this campaign a people’s movement. According to sources, five states who had good performance regarding the campaign in rural areas were: Sikkim, Rajasthan, Goa, Meghalaya and Gujarat. These states have recorded good performance in the past 18 months.

Other progress in this campaign includes an increase in coverage of households with toilets to 51.8% in March as opposed to the 38.8% in December 2013. Furthermore, the total number of open-defecation free (ODF) villages is now 54,730.

When it comes to urban areas, 33 lakh individual toilets were constructed so far or under construction. The number of community and public toilets is 2.18 lakh. In terms of urban sanitation, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh are the five highest performing states.

It is the expected that the urban areas in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala would be ODF by next year. The government is also planning a major sanitation drive at 100 iconic sites. These sites include religious, tourist and important places. A two-day mega event, Indosan is also being planned by the government. This event aims at developing a strategy till October, 2019.

Image credit: Swachh Bharat Abhiyan image by Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission Belur Math (Public Domain Mark 1.0)

Image Reference: https://www.flickr.com/photos/belurmath/29323185571/