Today is World Toilet Day. The day is about inspiring action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) aims to ensure availability and sustainable management of sanitation and water for all by 2030.
All over the world, 4.5 billion people live without a safe toilet and 892 million people still practise open defecation. In India, Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) will celebrate the Day today with mass awareness and mobilization activities across States and districts.
The focus of the programme is on the usage of toilets, which is closely linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for a Swachh Bharat by October next year. The central part of the day’s celebrations is the Swachh Bharat World Toilet Day Contest among all districts by organizing grassroots activities involving district, block and panchayat level teams, swachhagrahis and swachhata champions.
The objective is to engage with communities and reaffirm the national resolve to a sustain the Sanitation achievement. Since the inception of the Swachh Bharat Mission, the rural sanitation coverage has increased from 39 percent in October 2014 to over 96 percent as of now.
This year’s World Toilet Day campaign is based on the narrative: When nature calls, we need a toilet. But, billions of people don’t have one. This means human faeces, on a massive scale, are not being captured or treated – contaminating the water and soil that sustain human life.