Every Indian house will have a toilet before 2019 elections; changing mindset challenge: Centre

Top government functionaries believe that every household will get a toilet and will be open-defecation free before the 2019 elections, but have cautioned that changing the general mindset of the people still remains a challenge.

As per a Times of India report, the urban affairs department headed by Hardeep Singh Puri, has had a tough task to manage the huge quantum of daily garbage generated across urban areas. In fact, experts have said availability of toilets and their maintenance are key to their use, particularly public toilets in urban areas. In rural areas, on the other hand, the bigger challenge is to make the facility available to people.

He added that rural India had achieved only 39% sanitation coverage till October 2014 when the Swachh Bharat Mission was launched. “Over 5.9 crore toilets have been built and nearly 30 crore rural Indians have stopped defecating in the open since the launch of the mission. 290 districts in seven states of Sikkim, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh have become open defecation free. We are expecting another 8-10 states to become ODF by March, taking the total to about 18-20. We expect 400 districts to be …read more