PM To Mark Gandhi Jayanti By Declaring India Open Defecation Free, Data Tells Different Story.

Gandhi Jayanti is celebrated all over the world by all those who respect the non violent ideas of the great leader, who ensured that Britishers leave India in 1947. Government use this as an opportunity to make announcements, Swachh Bharat being one of them.?

Today, adding another achievement into the ongoing Swachh Bharat Mission, India is all set to be free of open defecation.?

PM Modi will declare India 'Open Defecation Free' on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi on Tuesday.

Ever since the launch of the Swachh Bharat mission in 2014 to keep India clean, the Modi government had been working extensively to eradicate the issue of open defecation, which is been blamed for the spread of several contagious diseases in the country.

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Over the past few years, the government has built millions of toilets across the country as part of the initiative and encouraged the construction of several others by providing subsidies and other initiatives.

According to government data, As many as 64.3 million toilets were built between 1999 and 2012 of the Total Sanitation Mission of the UPA Government. Since 2014, this has gone up to more than 100 million household toilets under Swachh Bharat.

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The?Economic Times, quoting data from the urban affairs ministry, reported that all states have been certified as ODF except 40 urban local bodies (ULBs) of West Bengal. Despite this, urban India will be declared ODF on October 2.

According to the Ministry’s statistics, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Goa and West Bengal have been slow starters. However, over the last one year, UP, Bihar, Odisha and Goa turned around the programme and achieved good results. Goa, which did not finalise the design of its community toilets till June, has already been certified ODF.