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Lucknow. On World Toilet Day, a two-day national knowledge workshop to advance managed sanitation dedicated to safety, health and dignity in urban areas was inaugurated on Tuesday at The Centrum Hotel in Lucknow by Tokhan Sahu, Minister of State, Union Urban Affairs Ministry, State Urban Development and Energy Minister A.K. Sharma, Minister of State Rakesh Rathore and US Ambassador to India H.E. Eric Garcetti lit the lamp.
Union Ministry of Energy, Housing and Urban Affairs, Manohar Lal, while giving the message of cleanliness to everyone on World Toilet Day, said that all the states will pay special attention to the cleanliness, maintenance and safety of community and public toilets during the toilet cleanliness campaign and will educate the people. We will also motivate them to use them and will make efforts to ensure that everyone has access to the sewer network.
Addressing the workshop, Union Minister of State Tokhan Sahu said that with the resolve of the Prime Minister, today the entire country has become free from open defecation under the Swachh Bharat Mission. The Prime Minister got inspiration for cleanliness from Chhattisgarh. Due to his efforts, Swachh Bharat Mission was started in 2014. Its second phase started in the year 2021. Now people in the country are becoming aware of cleanliness and paying attention to it. Due to which the country has got relief from the spread of many diseases and has also been successful in saving the lives of children and improving the respect and health of women.
State Urban Development and Energy Minister A.K. Sharma said that to realize the dream of cleanliness of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, Swachh Bharat Mission was launched by the Prime Minister on October 2, 2014 to free people from open defecation and promote cleanliness. Since then, people’s perception regarding cleanliness in the country has changed. Till now, all the bodies have achieved freedom from open defecation (ODF) by constructing lakhs of toilets. In this, 435 bodies became ODF Plus and 129 bodies have achieved ODF Plus-Plus status. Sanitation workers in the state also now get full respect for their work. All efforts are being made for their socio-economic upliftment. They are being provided benefits of government schemes and good arrangements have been made for the education of their children. Keeping in mind the life and health of the cleaning workers, machines are being used for dangerous cleaning tasks and cleaning of manholes. All the workers engaged in cleaning work have been given hygiene and safety kits and their health is also tested.
Other facilities are also being provided to them through citizens and institutions. The cleaning work is being done with complete safety. 30 to 40 percent of the municipal waste is also being completely disposed of. Door-to-door garbage collection is being done in the wards. He said that with the help of modern technology, success is being achieved in maintaining the cleanliness system of cities and in waste management. He said that when there was no urban system anywhere in the world, the residents of Indus Valley of our country provided the system of urbanization to the world by adopting the system of drainage and septic system in ancient times. He said that in the last 2-3 years, all the festivals in the state are being celebrated as completely clean, plastic free and zero waste events.
Recently, during the Chhath festival, all the Chhath puja ghats of Gomti river and other rivers were made clean and beautiful and arrangements were made for the devotees to worship in a clean and healthy environment. Similarly, city development is continuously working to give a divine and grand look to the upcoming Mahakumbh 2025 with complete cleanliness.
US Ambassador to India H.E. Eric Garcetti praised Lucknow in his address and said that Lucknow is a clean and beautiful city not only of India but also of the world. To maintain this cleanliness, safety and respect of the cleaning workers along with the infrastructure is very important. Both the United States of America and India have the same objectives regarding cleanliness. Efforts are being made for better arrangement of sewage system for the people, recycling and reusing of waste and plastic. Work should be done seriously to ensure that everyone gets the facility of sewage connection.
This World Toilet Day 2024, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) aims to celebrate India’s progress under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) and envision the future of urban sanitation through SBM-U 2.0. Is dedicated in collaboration with. The Government of Uttar Pradesh, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), and WASH Institute are organizing a two-day National Knowledge Workshop on Advancing Safely Managed Environments.
