Huge awareness campaigns on World Toilet Day

Kolkata: The Panchayat and Rural Development department will conduct massive awareness campaigns against open defecation and other health issues on November 19 on World Toilet Day.

The department has released tickers for television to create awareness against open defecation. There are tickers on hand wash where parents, particularly mothers, have been requested not to allow their children to take food without washing their hands. People have been asked to clear containers used to store water, flower pots as they serve as mosquito breeding grounds. They have also been requested to segregate garbage at source and keep bio-degradable waste in separate bins.

All the 22 districts in Bengal are likely to be Open Defecation Free (ODF) by December 2019. It may be mentioned that Bengal had started to spread this campaign long before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on October 2, 2015.

"All the districts in Bengal will be ODF much ahead of the schedule which is October 2, 2019", said Dibyendu Sarkar, Commissioner, Panchayat and Rural Development department. Nadia was country's first district that became ODF.

Five districts in Bengal that are yet to be declared ODF are Purulia, Jhargram, North Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). Fourteen districts have formally been declared as ODF while in three other districts, work has been completed but the formal declaration has not happened yet.

Panchayat and Rural Development department had lodged massive campaigns in the districts that have been declared as ODF requesting people to use toilets and maintain them as well. Teams have been set up comprising district officials and locals to ensure that people do not go out to defecate.

The theme for the World Toilet Day is "When nature calls take action."

Throughout the globe, the movement is on to set up composting latrines that capture and treat human waste on site producing a free supply of fertilizers to help grow crops.

According to a report published by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2015, 892 million people throughout the world practice open defecation while 4.5 billion live without a safe toilet and 62.5 percent people globally do not have access to safe sanitation. Every year 315000 children die globally due to unsafe water and poor sanitation.