Kerala is all set to become open defecation-free with the state-run Suchitwa Mission aiming to achieve the goal by November 1 this year. State Chief Secretary SM Vijayanand convened a meeting of all stakeholders and higher officials recently to evaluate the progress of the mission. Suchitwa Mission is the state nodal agency for sanitation. It is constituted under the state local self government department with the vision of creating a waste free Kerala with a pollution-free environment, public hygiene and cleanliness.

Did You Know?

• Open defecation refers to the practice whereby people go out in fields, bushes, forests, open bodies of water, or other open spaces rather than using the toilet to defecate.
• The practice is rampant in India and the country is home to the world’s largest population of people who defecate in the open and excrete close to 65,000 tonnes of faeces into the environment each day.
• Around 595 million people, which is nearly half the population of India, defecate in the open.
• India accounts for 90 per cent of the people in South Asia and 59 per cent of the 1.1 billion people in the world who practise open defecation.
• Open defecation poses a serious threat to the health of children in India. The practice is the main reason India reports the highest number of diarrhoeal deaths among children under-five in the world.
• Every year, diarrhoea kills 188,000 children under five in India. Children weakened by frequent diarrhoea episodes are more vulnerable to malnutrition, stunting, and opportunistic infections such as pneumonia.