Good morning friends. This is one of the topic I have always wanted to talk about. Cleanliness. This has reference to Indian Express. As the saying goes,…”Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”
Highlighting the importance to have clean surroundings for a healthy society, President Pratibha Patil on Monday said, “Lack of sanitation is one of the major causes of child and adult mortality and in rural areas and results in an annual loss of around 180 million man-days and an economic loss of Rs 1,200 crores in India.”
However, she also expressed happiness over the Total Sanitation Campaign launched in India. “I am happy to know that India has aimed to achieve the target of providing basic sanitation to people by launching the campaign. Our achievement of this goal will demonstrate the ability and capacity of India to meet the basic needs of its people,” she said.
She was speaking at a function to give away the Nirmal Gram awards to around 7,500 grampanchayats in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.
Maharashtra topped the list by bagging the award for 4,302 grampanchayants in the state. Union Rural Development Minister Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Pune Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar and Devisingh Shekhawat were present.
“I am happy to know that there were 30,000 applications and finally 11,000 villages have won the Nirman Gram awards this year. The number of awards has increased tremendously, which shows that the rural people in the country have accepted the campaign in the right spirit,” She said.
Patil added, “Consumption of unsafe drinking water, improper sanitation facilities and unhygienic food are the cause of many diseases like diarrhoea, polio and typhoid. In this scenario, the Total Sanitation Campaign would certainly help in making people conscious about the benefits of cleanliness. Inadequate sanitation lowers school enrollment, particularly those of girls. Women have been the main contributors of the total sanitation campaign throughout the country.”
The president also urged to include issues like management of solid waste and liquid wastes, so that environment protection too is achieved.
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