As part of the Indian government’s campaign for cleanliness, teams of people armed with tablets and phones will head out to the country’s rural areas and track residents’ toilet usage.
As part of the Indian government’s campaign for cleanliness, teams of people armed with tablets and phones will head out to the country’s rural areas and track residents’ toilet usage.
The aim is to curb the practice of people defecating out in the open, as it has presented some large problems for the country.
According to a study conducted by The World Bank, this issue costs India in excess of 50 billion dollars a year, primarily due to diseases and premature deaths linked to the lack of hygiene.
The monitoring initiative follows a new cleanliness program where the country spent significant funding and effort into building latrines in areas where sufficient numbers were lacking.
Now, they’re sending workers out to make sure they’re being utilized.
Citizens will also have an opportunity to monitor hygienic practices in their areas.
They’re being asked to take photographs that show misuse of publicly provided toilets and post them on social media and the ministry’s website.
One common repurposing of the latrines is as a storage area for grains and goats.
The goal is to completely turn the situation around by 2019.
