“Sanitation a path towards development ”
‘ The day everyone of us gets a toilet to use, I shall know that our country has reached the pinnacle of progress ‘ said Lt jawaharlal nehru.
It’s true that a path towards progress goes through fulfillment of all the basic needs of human life, we’re in proper sanitation is one of them.in rural areas one of the major issue is availability of sanitation facilities, there proper use and hygiene. In order to develop rural regions of our nation we have to focus on its sanitary sector. As Sanitation has a direct link and correlation with human health and hygiene which in a way effects there efficiency. For,this our government have launched swacch bhart mission grameen. Almost 600 million Indian living in rural areas defecates in open. Although SBM(G) has an ambitious target of eliminating open defecation by 2019. SBM(G) is time bound with a stronger results orientation, targeting the Monitoring of both outputs (access to sanitation) and outcomes (usage). There is also a strong focus on behavior change intervention and states have been accorded greater flexibility to adopt their own delivery mechanism.
Sanitation at first seems to be a bit less important when compared to sectors like education, health, income etc but if we take a chooser look then the facts are astonishing as Sanitation effects every other persons life whether in rural areas or in urban areas. It has an interlinked and a complex connection with other scenarios of human life mainly there health. It is often said that open defecation is a clearest manifestation of extreme poverty.There is a serious problem of negligence and orthodoxy in rural areas about sanitation which is creating a major hindrance in there all over progress . This further signifies the need of proper Sanitation for achieving all-round development in our rural regions. An most important factor of SBM(G) is its IEC i.e. information, education &communication. This is striving towards changing the community – wide behavior and to accelerate the demand for sanitation services and facilities in rural areas for households, schools, anganwadis,community sanitary complexes and solid &liquid waste management projects (SLWM) through providing information and increasing awareness amongst the masses. This process of triggering and nudging of communities for behavior change leading to usage of toilets which will lead to open defecation free environment, which is the main priority of the SBM(G).
Even according to WASH program launched by WHO/UNICEF there is a serious need to work on hygiene as a priority in all settings, decreasing inequalities in access of facilities both vertically & horizontally and call for improvement in quality of the human right to sanitation and hygiene that is accessibility, acceptability, availability, quality and affordability. And if we achieve this standard of sanitation and hygiene in our country were in specificly in rural areas then we will definitely be half way through our aim of rural development.
SANSKRITA TRIPATHI