Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Capital witnessed a unique evening on Friday when thousands of villagers came from all over the country to celebrate a festival of total sanitation.
Nirmal gram, the force behind total sanitation movement in India’s villages by 2015 all to remove diseases caused by water polluted with human waste, held the evening together.
The President, the Panchayati Raj Minister and the Rural Development Minister circled a stadium full of only happy winners.
Of the nearly 10,000 applications received by the Rural Development Ministry, for the Nirmal Gram awards, only 5,000 made the cut with Maharashtra heading he list, and the pride was inherent.
Uttar Pradesh that is going through a turbulent election year also had its share of the spotlight not to mention Kerala that boasts of villages that has a clean toilet for all its residents, a ‘nirmal gram’ in the true sense a Gandhian dream.
Less than 50 of every 100 households in rural India have a toilet but the 5,000 pancahyats that has taken the trouble of turning into a nirmal gram and has travelled all the way for the festival of total sanitation was a giant leap towards development
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.