Did India’s Swachh Bharat for cleanliness work out?
The government has been saying ‘yes’ to this since the Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission) was launched in 2014.
But the latest findings show otherwise!
The mission has envisaged to undertake sanitation measures to improve cleanliness across the country, after finding that 60% of rural population defaecate in open areas.
Since then, the government made plans to improve health infrastructure and eventually claimed to have setup 9.5 crore toilets across the nation since 2014.
But the shocking revelations from the Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan’s written reply in the Lok Sabha.
The ‘Rural Health Statistics 2018’ report the Minister referred to shows that 38% government healthcare centers in rural India still don’t have dedicated toilets in their offices.
More than 50% of government offices in 10 states and 3 UTs won’t have a dedicated staff toilet facility.
State-wise: TS Stands ‘Worst’
Telangana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh are in the list, and Telangana being the worst with 86% government health centers having no such facility. The state has no such facility across all its 4,744 sub-centers in rural areas.
These health centers include sub centers, Primary Health Centers (PHCs) and Community Health Centers (CHCs).
Whereas, the neighboring state Andhra Pradesh ranks well with all 7,458 sub-centers, PHCs and CHCs having such dedicated facilities.
Himachal Pradesh is only state with such facilities in all government hospitals, while UP also performs better with only 9% centers not having such facility.
Whereas, Rajasthan and Gujarat are other poor performers with 85% and 73% sub centers respectively, lacking dedicated toilets.
West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand almost report a similar scenario.
As per the WHO mandate, basic sanitation infrastructure at a healthcare center should possess at least a toilet facility dedicated to staff, a sex-separated toilet with menstrual hygiene facilities and a facility accessible for people with limited mobility.
The world health body terms ‘sanitation’ as a right and says such infrastructure is very important to deliver quality healthcare.
Looking at this scenario, it’s time for the Indian Government to act on implementation of the promised measures for public wellbeing.
