PM Modi's sanitation drive gets praises from Hillary Clinton

Washington, Oct 31: Former US Secretary of State

praised Prime Minister of India

for his sanitation and cleanliness drive. She also called for more women participation for the recovery of the world economy. Hillary said yesterday,"I recently met my husband with the new Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. He is very focused on basics like sanitation. Girls, as they get older, cannot go to school if there is no sanitation. Women can't get very far from home because there is no toilet."

Referring to a recent study in Asia, she said "about 90% of the population working in marketplaces were women. "There are no toilets available for women in the numbers that they represent. Think about it. It's such a simple thing. There's certainly no child care. So, is there a safe place you can leave your child while you're bustling around trying to sell in the marketplace?"

Hillary said that if more women could participate fully and get paid equally with the men, the US economy and the economies across the world will recover very fast. She further added,"The Gross Domestic Product or GDP projections that have been calculated, if we could get women's labour force participation to equal men's, are staggering. You know, in developed countries, it can be 8, 9, 10 per cent of an increase in GDP over the next 15 to 20 years. In less developed countries, it could be 30 to 40 per cent."

"We need more entrepreneurship. We need to encourage more young people to start businesses. We need more seed capital. We need more crowd funding. We need more access. We need more mentoring and teaching about business plans and how you deal with the economy and the stresses that you will face."

"I recently met my husband with the new Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. He is very focused on basics like sanitation. Girls, as they get older, cannot go to school if there is no sanitation. Women can't get very far from home because there is no toilet," said Hillary, referring to the meeting she, Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Modi had when the latter visited the US to attend the annual session of the UN General ASsembly.

OneIndia News