Rural area of Indore declared open defecation-free

Rural area of the Indore district has achieved the distinction of becoming free of open defecation practise after the Nadia district of West Bengal.
"I declare 610 villages under 312 village Panchayats in Indore district open defecation-free. Now we will eradicate open defecation from urban areas of Indore too," Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today said at a function here, attended by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
"Efforts will be made in 50 other districts of MP to do away with this bad practise," Chouhan said, praising the administration, public representatives, villagers and the children who played roles in achieving the feat.

Earlier, the state government had charted out a plan to rid MP of open defecation in two years, but now it will try to achieve this goal within one year, Chouhan said.
UNICEF's officer-in-charge for Madhya Pradesh Manish Mathur said, "approach of engaging communities is indeed effective in bringing behavioural change" and the efforts should now expand to cover the entire state.