Vidya Balan, who received the Best Actress National Film Award for her role in 2011 Bollywood hit 'The Dirty Picture', will now play a role to alter the real dirty picture in India. Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh has named the Bollywood actress as the brand ambassador in his campaign for improving sanitation.
Published on: 22/05/2012
Vidya Balan, who received the Best Actress National Film Award for her role in 2011 Bollywood hit 'The Dirty Picture', will now play a role to alter the real dirty picture in India. Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh has named the Bollywood actress as the brand ambassador in his campaign for improving sanitation.
According to India's 2011 census, nearly half of the population have no toilet at home, but more people own a mobile phone. There are 2.1 million toilets in India which rely on manual scavengers to empty them.
Vidya Balan has agreed to give support to Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan - the restructured version of the Total Sanitation Campaign - for two years .
The government aims to increase the allocation for toilet construction from the current 3,500 Rupees (US$ 65) to 9,900 Rupees (US$ 183) per toilet, of which 5,400 Rupees (US$ 100) would come from the new Total Sanitation Campaign and the remaining 4,500 Rupees (US$ 83) from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Minister Jairam Ramesh is requesting 360 billion Rupees (US$ 6.6 billion) for rural sanitation in India's 12th five-year plan which starts in 2012-2013.
The Indian government's ambition is to achieve total rural sanitation coverage by 2017. According to data available up to September 2011, 115.3 million rural households have access to toilets, leaving 40.8 million households without sanitation facilities. A parliamentary standing committee on rural development is sceptical whether all rural areas will be open defecation free by 2017.
Related news: Aamir Khan: Bollywood actor launches school sanitation drive, E-Source, 23 Jun 2010
Related video: Vidya the brand ambassador for sanitation drive, IBNLive/YouTube, 03 May 2012
Source: Sanitation Updates, 07 May 2012
