New Delhi: On the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared the country open defecation-free, claiming success for the government’s initiative under which every household now apparently has access to a toilet.
“I am satisfied that on the occasion of Gandhi at 150, we are witnessing the fulfilment of his dream of ‘Swachh Bharat’. I feel lucky that on this occasion, when India has successfully stopped open defecation, I’m here at the ashram,” the PM wrote in the visitor’s book at Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram on Wednesday.
“The world is impressed by our success on the open defecation-free front, and is giving awards to us,” said Modi, declaring that the country has achieved cleanliness in urban and rural areas thanks to the government’s initiative to build toilets.
The Prime Minister pressed a remote, unveiling the map of India as open defecation-free at the Sabarmati riverfront ground in the presence of more than 20,000 village heads from across the country and also representatives from several countries. “Today, rural India has declared itself open defecation-free. This is a great achievement of the Swachh Bharat movement which has people’s participation,” said the PM.
“On the call of Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom movement, people of the country mobilised for ‘satyagrah’ and they did the same now for swachhagrah,” he said.
“In 60 months, 600 million people have been given access to toilets and more than 110 million toilets have been built. The whole world is amazed to hear this,” he said.
“However, this achievement is just a milestone and we should not stop here. The movement has to continue,” he said, adding that sanitation, conservation of environment and animals were dear to Mahatma Gandhi.
Modi credited ground-level volunteers who made Swachhta and toilets a common man’s topic after the government launched the initiative.
“This mission helped make the toilet, which was earlier a difficult topic, a common topic of discussion. From girls who demanded a toilet before marriage to Bollywood, everyone contributed to the mission to make India an open defecation-free country,” he added, acknowledging the contribution of every section of society in the public movement.
Meanwhile, his government also committed to make the country free of plastics by 2022, setting an ambitious target.
“Plastic is a major threat to the environment so we have to achieve the goal to eradicate ‘single-use plastic’ from the country by 2022.”
In a separate event organised by the State BJP, he said the country’s stature is on the rise on the global level.
“In a way, the world is looking at India with great eagerness. The world was curious about India, a huge country with a vibrant democracy and it is hopeful that India’s participation will be most significant whenever there are opportunities to bring about global changes,” he said.
