India open defecation-free, says Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday declared that India is now open defecation-free.

Speaking at a 'Swachh Bharat Diwas' programme here on Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary, Modi also said the world appreciated India for providing toilets to over 60 crore people.

When Modi launched the ambitious Swachh Bharat (Clean India) campaign after becoming the prime minister in 2014, he had announced October 2, 2019 as the day India will be open defecation free (ODF), citing how Gandhi had laid immense stress on cleanliness and wanted the countrymen to pursue it.

"Today rural India and its villages have declared themselves 'open defecation-free'," he said.

"The whole world is appreciating and awarding us (for) providing toilets to over 60 crore people in 60 months by building over 11 crore toilets. The world is amazed by this," Modi said.

Modi said sanitation, conservation of environment and animals were dear to Gandhiji. "Plastic is a major threat to all of them, so we have to achieve the goal to eradicate 'single-use plastic' from the country by 2022," he said.