What It Will Take To Get 626 Million Indians To Stop Defecating In The Open

“One is creating awareness among the people, changing the mindset of the people, explaining the importance of hygiene, lack of sanitation affecting the health of people. This campaign is on, and we have involved – because the prime minister told me from day one that it has to be a people’s movement, a jan andolan. That’s why we have involved all the icons of the film industry, the spiritual gurus and people from IT and education, business community and all,” Naidu said in New Delhi.

He added that the government was ensuring that women and girl children, especially in schools, got proper toilet facilities. Naidu claimed that 417,000 toilets have come up in schools across India since the launch of the mission.

The government programme has caught on with several voluntary organizations and corporate houses.

India-based social organisation Sulabh International has built 1.3 million toilets in households across the nation so far.

Its founder Bindeshwar Pathak said his organization was collaborating with corporate firms to reach the 2019 target.

“Now the government has started many initiatives and they are doing on their own. But what we are doing is that we are mobilising corporate sector to come along with Sulabh to work and to achieve the target by 2019,” said Pathak.