Sanitation and Hygiene

Of the one billion defecating in the open globally 66% live in India, of which 92% live in rural areas. Despite concerted government efforts for the last three decades to promote sanitation, India continues to lag behind in terms of access to basic sanitation facilities.

Increasing concerns over the consequences of inadequate urban sanitation and water with regard to poverty, health, livelihoods, and education have spurred global declarations on the human right to sanitation and water. However, the social and spatial heterogeneity of urban poverty is often missing in global policy debates.

Kerala, flanked on the west by the Arabian Sea and on the east by the Western Ghats is bestowed with enviable natural resources. It has 44 rivers spanning its lush green landscape and rainfall that averages as high as 3000 mm a year.

Toilets need a septic tank or a connection to a sewage network, enough water to clean and flush, and regular maintenance to ensure proper functioning--except if it's the '

Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) Awards 2015

Sajan, a 14 year old Bhilala Adivasi boy studying in the Rani Kajal school in Kakrana in Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh says, "We now save a lot of time as we bathe in the bathrooms and defecate in the toilets rather than in the open fields; and so we study better".

As many as 2.4 billion people lack access to improved sanitation globally. 710 million of these people live in urban areas. In India alone, 769 million people lack access to improved sanitation and as high as 597 million people defecate in the open.

Shared sanitation facilities in India

Environment Ministry gets strict towards the compliance of green norms

Study shows half of Srinagar's water bodies have disappeared in the past century