Sulabh International hails Centre's total sanitation plan for all

, July 12: Hailing the Centre's announcement in Union budget that every household will have complete

by 2019, voluntary organisation Sulabh International on Saturday said that it would help in bringing down crime against women.

"Once the plan is implemented there will be no need for women to go out in the open to relieve thus subjecting themselves to the heinous crime," Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak said while talking to the reporters.

According to Census 2011, 53.1 per cent of households in the country do not have toilets and the figure is staggering 69.3 per cent for rural parts of the country.

Referring to Badaun case in which two teenaged girls were allegedly raped and murdered, Pathak said, "sanitation for all will bring down crimes against women." He said that by giving importance to the issue of toilets in this budget, the government would also succeed in tackling women-related crimes and sexual assaults which they face for want of toilets in rural areas.

Pathak: Sanitation for all will bring down crimes against women

"This is the first time when government has shown its intention to solve the problem of open defecation in the country," he said. Sulabh, the low-cost sanitation NGO, has already started construction of around 108 toilets for the people of Badaun's Katra Sadatganj village.

Construction is in full swing and the task would be completed within a couple of months, Pathak said adding that 25 toilets have already been set up.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in Parliament that every household was intended to be covered by total sanitation by the year 2019, the 150th year of the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi through Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

In the 12th plan, an outlay of Rs 34,377 crores has been provided for rural sanitation as compared to Rs 6,540 crores in the 11th Plan, Pathak said.

PTI