Sanitation coverage in rural areas witness high increase

The sanitation coverage in rural areas of the country was 21.9% as per census 2001 that has gone up to 32.7% in rural areas of the country as per census 2011 after accounting for the increase in number of households due to increase in population and fragmentation of households etc. The Minister for Rural Development Shri Jairam Ramesh said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha that sanitation and hygiene situation in South Asia remains at a crisis point. He said, the Government administers Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA), a comprehensive program to facilitate States to ensure sanitation facilities in rural areas with the main objective of eradicating the practice of open defecation and ensuring clean environment. The Minister said, to achieve the vision of Nirmal Bharat by 2022 with all Gram Panchayats in the country attaining Nirmal status, the budget provision under NBA for the first year of X11 plan, 2012-13, has been increased to Rs.3500 crore from Rs.1500 crores provided in the last year of the 11th plan 2011-12. Shri Ramesh added that the component of Solid and Liquid Waste Management has been strengthened and conjoint approach with National Rural Drinking Water Programme has been adopted to address the issue of availability of water for sanitation facilities.