World Toilet Day is celebrated every year on 19 November. It is a day that seeks to engage and educate people and their communities worldwide to encourage support for sanitation-related issues and to break the stigma around sanitation. The silence around the issue of toilets and sanitation has deadly consequences. It is a day to raise awareness about all people who do not have access to a toilet despite the human right to water and sanitation. It is a day to do something about it. Clean and safe toilets are prerequisites for health, dignity, privacy and education.
The aim of this day is to draw global attention to the sanitation crisis. In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly officially designated November 19 as World Toilet Day. It is coordinated by UN-Water in collaboration with governments and partners.
World Toilet Day is about taking action to ensure that everyone has a safe toilet by 2030, and theme for World Toilet Day 2019 is- A toilet is not just a toilet. It’s a life-saver, dignity-protector and opportunity-maker. We must expand access to safe toilets and leave no one behind. Because whoever you are, wherever you are, sanitation is your human right.
World Toilet Day 2019 is drawing attention to those people being left behind without sanitation and the social, economic and environmental consequences of inaction.
Importance of Sanitation
o Reducing diseases
o Improving nutritional status of children
o Enhancing safety, and well-being of children
o Increasing educational prospects, especially for women and girls
The Government of India is aiming to eliminate open defecation by 2019 through the construction of toilets across the nation. The Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission) was launched on 2 October 2014.
Sustainable Development Goal 6 has a target to eliminate open defecation and ensure everyone has access to sustainable sanitation services by 2030, “paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations”.
See detail Swachh Bharat Mission
References-
https://www.worldtoiletday.info/theme/