20 Million Toilets Built In Indian Villages Within Two Years
NEW DELHI,India - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday his government had built more than 20 million toilets and brought electricity to thousands of villages as he delivered an Independence Day report card. 
From the ramparts of Delhi’s 17th-century Red Fort, Modi vowed that his administration was on track to meet its pledge of providing power and toilets to every household across the world’s second most populous nation. 
Modi
drew praise in his first August 15 speech in 2014 as he tackled often
taboo issues such as sexual violence and a lack of toilets, promising to
build one for every household within four years.“Today I can say that in such short time, more than 20 million toilets have been built in India’s villages and more than 70,000 are free of open defecation,” Modi said to loud applause.
- Open defecation has long been a major health and sanitation problem in India, where almost 594 million people nearly half the population defecate in the open, according to UNICEF.
Modi has stressed the need to clean up India since storming to power in 2014 and has repeatedly urged every household to have a toilet to end the spread of disease and illnesses such as diarrhoea. 
Last year’s speech saw Modi set a 1,000-day deadline for every village in India to get electricity, urging state governments responsible for power to ensure every community is finally linked to the national grid.
“We’re nearing 70 years of independence and these poor villages were forced to live in the 18th century all this while, but we promised to make the impossible possible,” Modi said. 
“Today
I am proud to say that even though we haven’t even completed half of
those 1,000 days yet, we have already brought electricity to 10,000 of
those 18,000 villages.”Government figures released last year showed more than 300 million people in India the world’s fastest-growing major economy still had no access to electricity. Per-capita electricity consumption is barely one third of the global average.
Source: AFP
INDIAN CITY TO PAY RESIDENTS TO USE PUBLIC TOILETS?
NEW DELHI, India – While
the residents of city in other part of the world like Malaysia have to pay
for using toilets, city council in
western India is planning to pay residents to use public toilets in a desperate
attempt to stop legions of people urinating and defecating in public.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has decided to give
residents one rupee a visit in a bid to draw them into its 300 public toilets
and away from open areas and public walls, which often reek of urine.
AMC health officer Bhavikk Joshi said the offer would be
trialed at 67 public facilities across Ahmedabad, the main city in 
western
Gujarat state, where officers will give a coin to each user.
western
Gujarat state, where officers will give a coin to each user.
“Once successful the project will be implemented in all the
300 public toilets in Ahmedabad,” Joshi told AFP on Monday.
The move is the latest effort to motivate people to use
toilets after India’s government announced a cleanliness drive 
last year
championed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
last year
championed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Many people in India consider toilets unhygienic and prefer
to squat in the open, believing it more sanitary to defecate far from home.
India’s government last year announced a scheme to check
whether people who were given toilets as part of its 
cleanliness drive were
actually using them, by getting sanitary inspectors to go door-to-door.
cleanliness drive were
actually using them, by getting sanitary inspectors to go door-to-door.
UNICEF estimates that almost 594 million people — or nearly
half of India’s population — defecate in the open, with the situation worst in
dirt-poor rural areas.
Lack of toilets and other sanitation problems cause huge
health problems in India by causing illnesses such as diarrhoea.
Source: AFP
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