Over nine crore toilets built, 5.5 lakh villages declared open defecation free since 2014, govt tells Lok Sabha

New Delhi: More than nine crore toilets have been constructed across the country till 5 February this year under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G) launched in 2014, increasing the sanitation coverage in rural areas to over 98 percent, the government said Thursday. Giving out the details of toilets constructed under the mission, Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi said so far 27 states and 5.5 lakh villages have been declared open defecation free (ODF). [caption id=“attachment_3873293” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. News18[/caption] “Under SBM(G), 9.16 crore toilets have been constructed till 5 February, 2019. As a result, sanitation coverage in the rural areas of the country, which was 38.7 percent on 2 October, 2014, has increased to more than 98 percent. “Twenty-seven states, 601 districts, 5,934 blocks, 2,46,116 gram panchayats and 5,50,151 villages have been declared ODF,” he told the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The minister also said that since the launch of SBM-G in 2014, 9.16 crore individual household latrines (IHHLs) have been constructed till February 5 this year out of which, 5.22 crore IHHLs have been constructed during the last two years. According to the government, the maximum funds under the SBM-G for the year 2018-19 were released to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar at Rs 6,592.64 crore and Rs 2,943.69 crore, respectively. The data provided by the government revealed that both the states received double amount of funds in 2018-19 compared to 2017-18. The government had launched the SBM-G from 2 October, 2014, with an aim to attain open defecation free (ODF) India by 2 October, 2019, by providing access to toilet facilities to all rural households in the country. The states and UTs which have been declared ODF are Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand.