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The Centre has asked State Governments to enhance coverage of rural sanitation as it is observed that due to lack of sanitation facilities, more than 65% of the rural population defecate in the open generating a volume of about 200,000 Mt. of undisposed human excreta which pollutes our environment and water resources and becomes a major cause of diarrhoeal deaths in rural India. Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Minister of Rural Development in his communication addressed to Chief Ministers of States and Members of Parliament/MLAs has informed that in order to promote rural sanitation, Government of India has launched the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) which has been sanctioned in 507 districts of the country and it is expected that the remaining districts would be covered by the end of this year. Elected representatives at all levels including Panchayati Raj Institution(PRI) members and government functionaries are in a position to address this problem in a better manner and create awareness on these issues in their areas of influence more effectively, the Minister said. They need to take a leading role in sanitation promotion and this can be done only if they present good examples themselves, he further added. Expressing concern that a large number of elected PRI members and many government functionaries do not have toilet facilities in their own houses and defecate in the open, the Minister said that it is necessary that we impress upon them to change this behaviour and also to adopt better sanitation and hygiene practices.
In order to promote rural sanitation, the Minister observed that some of the State Governments have made amendments in their Panchayati Raj Acts to ensure that the elected members compulsorily have toilet facilities in their households. In this connection, he has requested the Chief Ministers to consider making such a provision in their PR Acts and pending that, urge upon the PRI members to construct toilets in their houses. Similarly, Government functionaries like school teachers, Anganwadi workers, health and village level workers of all departments, pensioners, mass education workers and fair price shop dealers etc. can also play an important part in influencing behaviour and they may be asked to construct toilets in their own houses and motivate all their neighbours to do the same. This step, the Minister stressed will enable us to not only meet the Millennium Development Goals but also the goal of completely eradicating the practice of open defecation by 2010.
RJ/AKS/ls
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