Question

Essay on sanitation and swatchta

Answer 1

Sanitation literally means measures necessary for improving and protecting health and well being of the people. Sanitation is any system that promotes proper disposal of human and animal wastes, proper use of toilet and avoiding open space defaecation.

Sanitation coverage in rural India, under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the "largest behaviour change programme" in the world, has now risen to 85 per cent, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation said today.

A statement issued by the ministry said that through mobilisation of rural communities, 7.4 crore toilets were built across rural India, and as an outcome, over 3.8 lakh villages and 391 districts were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF).

This is significant because under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen), sanitation coverage has increased to more than double than at the time of launch of the Mission, it said.

Two independent surveys conducted in the past by the Quality Council of India in 2017, and the National Sample Survey Organization in 2016, had pegged the usage of these toilets at 91 per cent and 95 per cent respectively, it added.

The Swachh Bharat Mission is the first sanitation programme in the country to measure outcomes (ODF) instead of output (toilets) alone.