India to become ‘open defecation free’ by 2012
`Come 2012 and it will be rare to see people defecating in the open in India. So claims Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who went on to say that the country was set to achieve ‘open-defecation free’ status under the government’s Total Sanitation Programme (TSC).
‘Open defecation is slowly losing popularity in rural India, and the government is doing all efforts to end this for all by 2012,’ Singh told IANS.
The TSC was started in 1999 by the rural development ministry to ensure sanitation facilities across the country.
‘The growth in the use of toilets from 22 percent in 2001 to 38 percent of the population in 2006 (till February) is an encouraging sign. The government has raised the grant for construction of household toilets from Rs.625 to Rs.1,500.’
