Participants included ministers, government officials, NGOs, religious leaders and corporates
The 14th edition of the World Toilet Summit was recently held in the country’s capital. It has added an impetus to the government’s quest for making the country clean and hygienic. Devendra Chaudhary, Special Secretary, Ministry of Power, while addressing the summit at Vigyan Bhawan, announced that the Ministry of Power will construct around one lakh toilets in close to 60,000 government schools spread across the country.
In his address, Chaudhary also stressed the need to think of business and commercial solutions for not only building toilets, but also maintaining them. He was speaking at the inaugural session of the day titled ‘Swachh Bharat and Swachh Vidyalaya’. Senior BJP leader and renowned economist Subramaniam Swamy was also one of the panelists during the session. In his address, he called upon the private sector to make a collective effort towards a cultural shift in partnership with government.
During the second day of the summit, various sessions on ‘Dignity for Girls/ Women through sanitation -Access; Behavioural change and empowerment; Low cost solutions: Best practices; Implementing innovation solutions to better sanitation and Sanitation from a privilege to a Right’ were held. Eminent people including S Radhakrishnan, DRDO (Director), and Sandeep Sethi, Education Officer, Central Board of Secondary Education participated in the summit. It also witnessed the participation of various NGOs including World Bank, USAID, World Toilet Organization, BRAC, CLTS, Water.org, WaterAid, Aqua for All, Sulabh International, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WASTE, and FINISH Society among others. Representatives from the private sector included Reckitt Benckiser, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Kimberly-Clark Corporation and American Standard Brands.
Commenting on the outcomes of World Toilet Summit, Jack Sim, Founder, World Toilet Organisation said, “We have come together … to support Prime Minister Modi’s vision to end the sanitation crisis in India. I want everyone to have a vision of an India where people want to use the toilet – a vision of clean, beautiful, safe and enjoyable toilets for all. Through collaboration and effective coordination this vision can become a reality.”
Anurag Saxena, CEO, Asia Pacific, World Education Foundation said, “We are overwhelmed by the overall response at the summit. Every section of our society – people, NGOs, and corporates will have to play a big role in the success of the Swachh Bharat mission, and perhaps the most important role will be that of students, and schools administration in the whole process.”
Lalitt Gattani, Chief Creative Officer, Showcraft Productions said, “I am very thankful to various departments of Government of India for extending their support and participating in full force in the 14th World toilet summit. I am personally very thankful to our religious leaders for showing the way and demonstrating the true secular fabric of our society, and this will surely start a new beginning in building a Swachh Bharat, a thought initiated by PM Modi which is all set to become a reality.”
Rajiv Chandra, Senior VP – Global Category Officer – Hygiene, RB Plc, spoke of the need for effective measurement and said, “We need to match the enthusiasm of our collective intentions with equal rigour in transparency and accountability in implementation. But, because it is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, we must stretch to meet the challenge even if it is uncomfortable or unfamiliar. To address this, we recommend forming a council of experts who will join hands to derive a mechanism for timely tracking the progress of the efforts towards our nationwide campaign – Dettol Banega Swachh India.”
Participating in a session titled ‘Behavioural Change and Empowerment’, Ben Johnson, Global Intimate Care Senior Brand Manager from Kimberly-Clark Corporation said, “A common theme we’ve heard throughout the summit is that solving the sanitation crisis is a major undertaking and will require commitment, creativity and innovation from around the world to not only build toilets, but to inspire a behaviour change revolution. The summit has enabled government representatives, NGOs and the private sector to continue building the much-needed relationships and challenge each other to think beyond what’s been done in the past so that our collective impact will be greater and more meaningful.”
Several commitments were made by NGOs, corporates and even the religious leaders at the summit. As a mark of true religious bonhomie, HH Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji Maharaj and Jaan Syed Zainul Abedin Ali Khan, Dewan Saheb, Ajmer Sharif joined hands for the noble cause of sanitation. Dewan Saheb announced donating his personal land adjacent to the dargah for building a toilet block, while HH Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji Maharaj committed the entire expense for building the same.
Among the corporate commitments, Reckitt Benckiser committed to contribute 10 million pounds until 2019 to work in six key states, driving behavioural change and habits through a prevent/ promote/ treat initiative with a focus on eradicating diarrhoea. Kimberly-Clark Corporation and Thompson Social, JWT have committed to working with World Toilet Organization on a behaviour change and public awareness campaign to address open defecation in India. Hindustan Unilever committed to help 25 million people gain access to a toilet by 2020. Similarly through its Flush for Good campaign, American Standard has committed to providing improved sanitation to 20 million people by the year 2020. Several other commitments were also made by various corporates.
“At HUL, we believe that universal access to WASH is fundamental to eradicating poverty and enabling inclusive, sustainable economic development. We are proud have supported the World Toilet Summit which was a great opportunity to bring together government, civil society and the private sector to discuss challenges around sanitation and WASH, and plan how we can all progress Prime Minister Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan,” said Priya Nair, Executive Director – Home Care, Hindustan Unilever.
“The sanitation crisis in India is multifaceted with social, economic, behavioural, and logistical challenges. Where companies like American Standard can play a role is in providing affordable, aspirational toilet products that people really want to own and use because it makes everyday life a little better. There is a big gap in this product space, and a lot of excitement at this World Toilet Summit around taking action to improve the situation,” said sanitation expert Dr Jim McHale of American Standard Brands.
EH News Bureau