Guj, MP faltering in Modi govt’s 100-day target for toilets

 

New Delhi, Aug 20, 2014, (PTI):  BJP-ruled Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are among the 17 odd states which are faltering in achieving Narendra Modi Government’s 100-day target for constructing separate toilets for girls in schools, according to a government report.

 

Other BJP-ruled states including Goa, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan figure in the list of the states which are not on the path of achieving 100 days’ target in constructing individual household latrine (IHHL), it said.

 

The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation prepared the report days after the Prime Minister asked corporate sector to help build separate toilets for girls in schools across the country by next year.

 

"States not achieving 100 days target as of now are: -Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Uttarakhand," said the report on states’ performance on construction of school toilets.

 

Soon after the new government came to power, the Ministry had finalised targets for the first 100 days of the new Government under various components of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA).

 

"In construction of school toilets the performance during 2014-15 (so far) of Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram, Jharkhand, Kerala and West Bengal is below the national averagae," it said.

 

The report will be analysed at a one day workshop for state ministers and secretaries for review of sanitation schemes convened by the Centre here on August 25.

 

The report said in construction of individual household latrine, the performance during 2014-15 so far, Goa, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Tripura, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Punjab, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Kerala, Chattisgarh and Arunachal Pradesh is below the national average.

 

In his Independence Day speech, Modi had pitched for making provisions for building toilets so that women are not forced to defecate in open.

 

"We are in the 21st century. Have we ever been pained by the fact that even today our mothers and sisters have to defecate in open. Dignity of women...isn’t this is a responsibility of everyone?

 

"Women and sisters wait for dusk. Until then they cannot relieve themselves. How much pain their body will be going through?...How many diseases they must be prone to? Can’t we make provisions for a toilet for the dignity of our mothers and sisters," he had said.