Assam has bagged a special award in the recently concluded Swacch Sarvekshan Grameen 2018 conducted throughout the country by the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin.
Assam received this award for its standout performance in the Northeast region.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
The award was presented by Union Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Uma Bharti during an event at Pravasi Bharti Kendra in New Delhi on October 2.
‘Swachh Survekshan Grameen’ is a survey conducted for rural cleanliness in order to rank all districts and states on the basis of qualitative and quantitative evaluation.
The ranking is based on a comprehensive set of cleanliness parameters, survey of public places, citizens’ perception of ‘swachhta’ (cleanliness) and their recommendations for the improvement of the programme, and data from the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ in rural areas.
Ready for a challenge? Click here to take our quiz and show off your knowledge!
In its four-year journey, Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin), Assam has constructed a large number of toilets across the state.
Though the pace of the mission was a little slow in the initial stages, since 2016 the momentum and scale of the mission has grown exponentially.
Comparing the physical progress of the state, only 172 villages were open defecation free till mid 2016 while at present, 20324 villages have been declared open defecation free and the mission has reached out to 51.38 Lakhs rural families with toilet facilities, said an official.
Moreover, 24 districts at present are 100% ODF and the state seems to be just a few months away from becoming an open defecation free (ODF) state.
So far, the state has initiated a number of innovative ideas which have contributed to the mission’s success.
Some of the notable milestones of Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) Assam have been the Cleanest Village Award, Daan Toilet, Mission Sambhav which covered 33 districts reaching out to one lakh families and initiated the construction of 1,12,748 numbers of toilets on a single day, out of which 994 number of toilets were donated, the official claimed.
As compared to an approximate amount of 6 lakh toilets provided in 2014-16, a total of nearly 20, 87,012 toilets have been provided to the public between May 2016 to June 2018.