Post News Network
New Delhi, Sept 8: Orissa has secured a rank among the worst performing states in rural sanitation, according to a survey report released here Thursday.
The survey report christened ‘Swachh Sarvekshan’ (rural) made a ranking of 26 states of the country on the basis of their sanitation levels through household surveys. The survey, which was conducted under the ministry of drinking water and sanitation for 2015, was released by Minister of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation Narendra Singh Tomar.
Tomar said such surveys and rankings are likely to encourage the states for a healthy competition to keep their states cleaner and the country can achieve the objectives of Swachh Bharat Mission by October 2019.
According to the report, Orissa has been ranked 24th out of 26 states surveyed. The report claimed that only 24.8 per cent of the rural population of Orissa have access to sanitary toilets and are using it. However, states like Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are ranked below Orissa – 25th and 26th respectively.
The states which topped the list are Sikkim, Kerala, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
The survey also ranked 75 districts of the country on the basis of sanitation wherein the participating districts from Orissa also lagged behind. The districts which secured lower ranks are Jharsuguda (22nd), Deogarh (34th) and Gajapati (41st).
The survey on the states was conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in 2015 and data was analysed by the ministry of drinking water and sanitation. However, the survey on districts was conducted in 2016 by the Quality Council of India with assistance from the ministry.
These rankings were made on four parameters: households having access to safe toilets and using them (40 percent), households having no litter around (30 percent), public places with no litter in the surrounding (20 percent) and households having no stagnant wastewater around (10 percent).
Centre’s intervention
When asked about the steps to be taken by the Centre to improve the sanitation status of poorly-ranked states like Orissa, Tomar told Orissa POST, “On September 19-20 we have planned a meeting with the concerned ministers and secretaries in Guwahati to work for improving sanitation levels in rural areas. We are also visiting states and meeting chief ministers of all states and urging them to put rural sanitation on the priority list.”
The chief ministers of poorly-ranked states need to interact more with the village-level institutions for better results, he added. “For states like Orissa we will go there and talk to the governments there on the issue. We expect good results from these states later,” Tomar said.
