Odisha becomes open defecation free State ahead of Gandhi Jayanti

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States where he will be honoured with the ‘Global Goalkeeper Award’ by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for his leadership and commitment to the Swachh Bharat Mission later this month, Odisha has achieved the open defecation free (ODF) status.
Odisha was the second-worst performing State after Goa in terms of construction of individual household latrines, the flagship programme of the Centre under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM).
After failing to meet several deadlines of the Centre, it had assured the Centre in June of achieving the ODF status by October 2 this year.
However, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation had asked the State Government to cover all left out households under the programme by August 31.
The ambitious mission aimed to achieve universal sanitation coverage as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary.As per the baseline survey in 2012-13, only 11 per cent households of the State had individual latrines. Odisha had a massive task to construct 79 lakh toilets by October 2, 2019.