Changing India determined to achieve cleanliness: Javadekar

Films like "Toilet Ek Prem Katha" and "Padman" symbolise a changing India that is determined to achieve cleanliness, Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar said here on Tuesday, after presenting the "Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar" awards to schools from various parts of the country.

Cleanliness had now become a movement in which schools and students were playing a crucial role, he added.

A total of 52 schools selected from among 6.5 lakh, including over 45,000 private schools, were presented the "Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar" 2018 awards at the function organised by the HRD Ministry at the Ambedkar International Centre.

"No one would have imagined that films like 'Toilet Ek Prem Katha' and 'Padman' would be made and they would become popular. This is the changing picture of a changed India. This is our changed determination that we will achieve cleanliness," Javadekar said, addressing the students and teachers from various states.

The HRD Ministry had launched the "Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya" (SBSV) initiative in 2014 to ensure that all the schools in the country had access to separate functional toilets for boys and girls.

The national awards for clean schools were based on a self-appraisal system, in which five parameters -- drinking water, toilets, capacity building, behavioural change and washing hands -- were evaluated.

Javadekar said in 2014, there were 4.5 lakh schools in the country without toilets and added that the facilities were built within a year.

"This is a record," he said, while lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiatives to promote cleanliness in the country.

The fact that 4.5 lakh villages, 21 states and Union territories and over 400 districts were declared open defecation-free showed that India was changing, Javadekar said.

Parmeswaran Iyer, the Secretary of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation -- the nodal agency for the Swachh Bharat Mission -- said ordinary people had made the cleanliness campaign successful.

Schools from Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, Goa, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Lakshadweep and West Bengal were awarded at the event.

Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya from Nand Nagri in Delhi also won the award.