International Toilet Festival inaugurated in Delhi
On 19th November 2014, three-day International Toilet Festival began on the eve of World Toilet Day with an aim to spread the message of total sanitation and to put an end to the scourge of open defecation.
About the Event
On inauguration day around 900 students from nine Delhi schools; delegates from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan; a group of former manual scavengers and about 100 widows from Vrindavan took part in the event organised by Sulabh International at New Delhi’s Central Park.
Following a walkathon, the students, carrying placards, came together to form a human chain; they were later administered a pledge of cleanliness.
Celebrating this day will help to spread Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of having a toilet built in every household by 2019.
As per Census 2011, over 67 per cent rural households of the country do not have access to toilets, leading to large scale open defecation.
About World Toilet Day
World Toilet Day is observed annually on 19 November. This international day of action aims to break the taboo around toilets and draw attention to the global sanitation challenge and to raise global awareness of the daily struggle for proper sanitation that a staggering 2.5 billion people face.
World Toilet Day was introduced in 2001 and now has become an important platform to demand action from governments and to reach out to wider audiences by showing that toilets can be fun as well as vital to life.
Its vision is to grow as a collective campaign uniting everybody on 19 November who is passionate about toilets to ensure that access to proper sanitation, which has been declared a human right, becomes a reality for all.
It brings together different groups, such as media, the private sector, development organisations and civil society in a global movement to advocate for safe toilets.
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Month: Current Affairs - November, 2014