NEW DELHI – India is to be declared “open-defecation free” by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi on Wednesday evening, although experts question hisbold claim that all 1.3 billion people in the country have access to atoilet.
Modi made his “latrines for all” pledge when he first assumed office in2014 and is hailing the project’s success as India celebrates the 150thanniversary of the birth of independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, a sanitationchampion.
Since being elected, Modi’s government says it has built almost 100 milliontoilets, winning the leader plaudits abroad, including an award from theBill and Melinda Gates Foundation last week.
In March, the government had said fewer than 50 million people relievedthemselves outside, down from 550 million in 2014, with more than 550,000villages declared open-defecation free.
However, experts are sceptical over his claims, citing data from rural aswell as urban areas.
“A lot of latrines have been constructed from 2014 to 2018. Latrineownership increased from about 35 percent to about 70 percent,” saidSangita Vyas from the Research Institute for Compassionate Economics (RICE).
“That increase did accelerate the reduction of open defecation but inDecember 2018 we estimated about half of people in the states of Bihar,Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan still defecated in the open,”she told AFP, doubting that the shortfall has been made up since.
Many of the toilets that have been constructed are without a waterconnection and even when they are connected, cultural barriers stop manyIndians from using them, experts say.
– ‘Gandhi’s dream’ –
Modi, 69, was set to make the grand announcement in his western home stateof Gujarat on Wednesday evening in front of 20,000 village chiefs.
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He was also due to visit the Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat, where Gandhibased himself for many years, and where 10,000 jars of treated human faecalmatter were to be handed to guests, the Indian Express daily reported.
The nutrient-rich matter — sun-dried, sieved into a tea leaf-likeconsistency and packed into the glass jars together with seeds — will thensprout upon watering.
Before that, Modi early on Wednesday paid his respects to Gandhi, who wasassassinated the year after India gained independence from Britain in 1947,at the Raj Ghat memorial in New Delhi.
He said on Twitter that India was expressing “gratitude to Mahatma Gandhifor his everlasting contribution to humanity. We pledge to continue workinghard to realise his dreams and create a better planet.”
Other events also took place nationwide including in a hospital room inPune where Gandhi was operated on for appendicitis in 1924.
As many as 600 prisoners were also set to be released in an amnesty, mediareports said.
Later on Wednesday, a year-long, 14,000-kilometre (8,700-mile) “globalpeace” march was due to leave Delhi bound for Switzerland and taking in 10countries. -APP/AFP
