Lucknow: Viewing the announcement in the Union Budget in the context of growing rape cases in Uttar Padesh, sanitation NGO Sulabh International said here if toilets are constructed in each household, there will be no need for women to go out for sanitation and will not be subjected to heinous crime.
Recalling the Badaun rape case, in which Dalit girls were sexually assaulted before being murdered, Sulabh Founder Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak said on Saturday, “Sanitation for all will bring down crimes against women.”
He justified the statement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who remarked ‘Toilet first Temples later’.
Arguing that sexual assaults often took place because women were forced to answer the call of nature in the open, Dr. Pathak cited the horrific gang rape and murder of two sisters in Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun village, who were abducted when they went outside to relieve themselves.
“By giving such importance to the issue of toilets in this budget, the government will also succeed in tackling women-related crimes and sexual assaults which they face for want of toilets in rural areas,” Dr. Pathak said in a statement.
“This is the first time when government has shown its intention to solve the problem of open defecation in the country,” he added.
Sulabh, the low-cost sanitation NGO, has already started construction of around 108 toilets for the people of Badaun’s Katra Sadatgunj village which witnessed killing of two sisters after their rape.
Construction is in full swing and the task will be completed within a couple of months. 25 toilets have already been set up. Setting an example, Dr. Pathak had announced that toilets would be provided for every person in the infamous Katra Sadatgunj village in Badaun.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said in Parliament that every household was intended to be covered by total sanitation by the year 2019, the 150th year of the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi through Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
In the 12th Plan an outlay of Rs 34,377 crore has been provided for rural sanitation as compared to Rs 6,540 crore in the 11th Plan, which is a significantly higher allocation (425 per cent higher than the 11th Plan).
The Government started the Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) in 1986 to provide sanitation facilities in rural areas.
It was a supply driven, highly subsidised and infrastructure-oriented programme. As a result of deficiencies and low financial allocations, the CRSP had very little impact on the gargantuan problem.
The experience of community-driven, awareness-generating campaign based programme in some states and the results of evaluation of CRSP, led to the formulation of Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) approach in 1999. (UNI)