The country has been on a toilet-construction mission 1986, when began to offer subsidies for building latrines under a programme that is now known as the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan. Since 2001, the central government has spent Rs 15,000 crore to build 93.5 million toilets across the country.

India has the world’s largest population of people who defecate in the open. According to the 2011 census, 53% of Indian households do not have toilets. In villages, the figure is even higher: 59.4% of rural India practices open defecation, according to December 2013 data from the National Sample Survey Office.
Arunachal is striving to become Open Defecation Free by December this year. Already two of its districts— Tawang and West Siang have been declared as ODF recently. Given the effort put in by the administration and the state government, this tag does look within reach.

Open defecation is not a part of local culture even in the days of yore. A make-shift bamboo structure for a toilet has always been part of traditional households. It’s true that locals lack the scientific know-how but it was/is there! People are conscious not so much about hygiene probably but privacy matters. Therefore, reaching ODF status is not such a colossal challenge. For any change to take place, mindsets need to change first and in this department the government does not need too much of slogging to do.

Sikkim has done all northeastern states proud by becoming the only state in the country to have achieved 100% sanitation in February 2014.

Sikkim began its cleanliness drive over a decade before Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission. It was 13 years ago in 2003 when the Pawan Chamling-led government launched its total sanitation campaign for the state.

The state government began by sensitizing people to adopt a holistic approach that would improve hygiene and sanitation, protect the environment and accelerate overall development in the state. Next, it constructed 98,043 household latrines, surpassing its own target of 87,014. Of these, 61,493 latrines were built for below poverty line (BPL) families.

The inspiring story of Sikkim must be a cursor for Arunachal as well to achieve this coveted tag.

 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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