New Delhi, August 19th: Under the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (SBM-G), more than one lakh villages in the country have declared themselves as Open Defecation Free (ODF) Plus. These villages have all the systems for solid and liquid waste management.
According to the Ministry of Jal Shakti, the highest number of villages in the five states of the country have been declared ODF plus. These include Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh.
Solid waste management arrangements have been made in 99,640 villages across the country. With this, there are functional solid and liquid waste management plants in about 57,312 villages.
It is noteworthy that eight years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi started the Swachh Bharat Mission from the ramparts of the Red Fort, which aims to make the country open defecation free as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary.
Rural India became open defecation free on October 2, 2019, 11 years ahead of the SDG-6 target set by the United Nations. There is a need to ensure complete sanitation or complete sanitation in order to make the villages of the country ODF Plus.
