Shihan Mahendra Kumar Ayyalkar: India’s Karelin of Karate
December 2, 2023
December 3, 2023,1:49:59 PM
New Delhi, Delhi, India:
· India on Track to Achieve SBM Phase Two Goals by 2025 - Gajendra Singh Shekhawat
· Nearly 80% of villages have already declared themselves Open Defecation Free (ODF) Plus
Addressing the prestigious 7th ISC-FICCI Sanitation Awards Ceremony and India
Sanitation Conclave through a video
address, Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Union
Minister, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, highlighted that the Swachh Bharat Mission
Urban has dramatically increased the processing of waste in urban areas, with
more than 76% of the total waste now being processed, a significant leap from
just 17% in 2014.
Shri Puri attributed this substantial progress
to the transformative initiatives driven by the Honourable Prime Minister,
which have catalysed a behavioural shift towards cleanliness in the country.
The Swachh Bharat Mission, alongside the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and
Urban Transformation (AMRUT), has played a crucial role in enhancing the state
of sanitation across India. Notably, the Swachh Bharat mission has been
instrumental in addressing the challenge of open defecation in urban areas
through the construction of 63 lakh individual toilets and 6.3 lakh public
toilets. Furthermore, AMRUT has been pivotal in tackling the shortage of basic
sanitation infrastructure, adding 172 lakh water tap connections and 135 lakh
sewer connections in cities, the minister highlighted.
In a video address at the Conclave, Union
Minister for Jal Shakti, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, announced that
India is on track to fully achieve the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) phase-two
goals by 2025. Shri Shekhawat highlighted the remarkable progress in
rural sanitation, noting that nearly 80% of villages have already declared
themselves Open Defecation Free (ODF) Plus under the SBM-Grameen initiative. He
emphasised the crucial role of public-private partnerships in this success,
drawing attention to successful collaborations in other sectors, such as
highways and airport construction, and advocating for similar partnerships in
water and sanitation.
The Minister also spotlighted the India
Sanitation Coalition at FICCI's pivotal role in these partnerships,
particularly through the innovative Lighthouse Initiative (LHI). LHI, he noted,
has been a game-changer, with corporate houses adopting entire gram panchayats
for Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) interventions. This initiative
that currently covers 75 gram panchayats across 15 states, is poised for
further expansion in its second phase, with nearly 40 major corporate houses
set to cover much larger geographies.
Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, Chair, India Sanitation Coalition, in her keynote
address, emphasised the essential role of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)
in India's progress. Highlighting the significant achievements of the Swachh
Bharat Mission, Ms Kidwai noted that India is on the brink of a major
sanitation revolution, with nearly universal access to toilets and significant
strides towards becoming open defecation-free aligned with the Sustainable
Development Goals 6.2.
Ms. Kidwai also highlighted the emerging focus
on plastic waste management, with more than 2500 Plastic Waste Management Units
now established. Additionally, she underlined the operational status of nearly
3000 faecal sludge management plants, illustrating the country's commitment to
comprehensive sanitation solutions. With the construction of 11.3 crore
individual household latrines and over two lakh community toilets under the SBM
rural initiative. Ms. Kidwai hailed these accomplishments as not just
statistical milestones but as transformative steps. She also discussed how
everything we do has an impact on climate change, and how climate change
presents a major threat to water and sanitation services both, in rural and
urban communities. She further highlighted the role of ISC in mitigating
climate change.
In his address, Dr R. A. Mashelkar, Former Director
General, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research and Chair, Awards
Jury, emphasised the Assured Framework for Actual Innovation. He highlighted
the importance of an intricate framework for evaluating Actual Innovations,
noting that impactful sanitation solutions must be affordable for scalability,
sustainable in terms of business viability, environmentally friendly, adaptable
to regulatory changes, and socially acceptable. Dr. Mashelkar also stressed the
need for user-friendliness and integration of advanced technologies like AI and
robotics to improve sanitation. He advocated for a broad range of innovation,
including new business models and organisational changes, while urging unique
approaches to meet India's specific sanitation challenges. Dr R. A. Mashelkar
also felicitated the ISC-FICCI Sanitation Award winners during the
session.
On the occasion, a compendium, “Cities in Crisis: Best Practices on Curbing
Plastic Waste across Urban India”, was also unveiled.
The compendium is a collection of twenty case studies from nineteen
organisations, shedding light on diverse solutions to tackle the plastics waste
crisis.
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