Rated high on social indicators but…
No loos in 53,000 households
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Even as Goa is generally rated high on socio-economic indicators, it appears that 53,003 households do not have any kind of toilets, according to the latest census. Ironically, inspite of this reality, the government has not built a single toilet either as household latrine, school toilet or as Anganwadi toilet in 2012-13, according to figures just submitted to parliament.
Of these households 34,157 are in rural and 18,846 in urban areas, which means that 27.4 per cent of rural households and 9.5 of urban households do not have toilets. Goa has a total of 3,22,813 households – 1,24,674 in rural and 1,98,139 in urban areas.
However, the all India situation is worse with 50% of India’s population (620 million people) practicing open defecation.
These figures are as per the achievement reported by the states into the Online Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) of the
Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation under the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)/ Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) during the year 2012-13.
According to figures submitted to parliament, only 72.60 per cent of Goa is covered by a rural sanitation programme.
For a state that is constantly touted by its politicians to be a developed state, the piped water scenario is a little better with rural & urban household access to piped water supply being 124674 or 77.80 per cent in rural areas and 198139 (90.20 per cent) in urban areas.
According to the Minister of State (independent charge) in the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation Bharatsingh Solanki’s statement in Rajya Sabha 50% of India’s population (620 million people) practice open defecation. As per Census 2011 report, 46.9% households in the country have toilets within premises, 47.2% households possess television sets and 63.2% households have telephones.
The government has restructured the rural sanitation programme and launched the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA), with revised strategies to achieve the target. As this is a demand driven programme, no year-wise targets are set under NBA but achievement are reported by the States into the Online Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) of the Ministry.
NBA helps in construction of inndividual household latrines for which the enhanced incentive for individual household latrine units has been extended to all Below Poverty Line (BPL) Households and Above Poverty Line Households (APL) restricted to SCs/STs, small and marginal farmers, landless labourers with homestead, physically handicapped and women headed households. It also provides for sanitation facilities in Government schools and Anganwadis in government buildings.
For a state that is constantly touted by its politicians to be a developed state, the piped water scenario is a little better with rural & urbanhousehold access to piped water supply being 124674 or 77.80 per cent in rural areas and 198139 (90.20 per cent) in urban areas.
