New Delhi: Every morning around dawn, dozens of people gather by the forest area in Lal Kuan village, in Tughlakabad state assembly constituency of New Delhi, to do the same thing: defecate in the open.
The village lacks basic amenities. People do not have toilets in their houses as there is no sewage system. Even if someone happens to have a toilet in their house, it is constructed by digging a pothole, which has to be cleaned every 2 months.
The women here are forced to go to the nearby forest area for defecation. It was found that criminal incidents also happen in the area as the village is near the forest.
People expressed their resentment towards the government and questioned the Prime Minister's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
They said that the PM had promised toilets will be built in every household of the country, but the Government has failed to provide facilities in Delhi itself.
People said that two toilets were constructed on behalf of the government outside the village but the toilets are locked.
People said that this problem has been in the area for many years. People reportedly complained about this to the present MP and MLA several times, but nobody solved this.
In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the “Swachh Bharat”, or “Clean India”, campaign and vowed to eliminate open defecation nationwide in five years.
Modi, who is seeking re-election for a second term in polls that concluded on Sunday, has often used the success of Swachh Bharat in campaigning. “We got more than 100 million toilets built,” he said at a rally in north India on Sunday.
Swachh Bharat, a multi-billion-dollar program backed by money from the government and a World Bank loan, has indeed built millions of latrines, but critics say official statistics paint an overly optimistic picture of its success.
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