'Investment in sanitation as important as in defence'

Jairam Ramesh talks about investment in this sector

PTI | February 21, 2012



Vigorously pushing the agenda of clean drinking water and sanitation, Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday said investment in these sectors is as important as investing in defence.

"Investment in (drinking) water supply and sanitation is a matter of urgent priority. It is as important as investing in defence," Ramesh, who is also the in-charge of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, said.

"You can invest in missiles and tanks, in aircraft, but if you don't have clean drinking water, if you don't have sanitation, then the population is not going to be healthy.

"The more we invest in clean drinking water, the more we invest in sanitation, the better health, people will have," he told reporters after the second meeting of the National Drinking Water and Sanitation Council here.

On the idea of utilising the service of Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers affiliated to NRHM to promote health awareness, Ramesh said, "This is a source that we should tap into in order to promote greater awareness and sensitivity to hygiene and sanitation issues...Ultimately there is no distinction between health and sanitation. Better sanitation leads to improved health."

An ASHA worker is a village woman, preferably in the age group of 25 to 45 years, trained in the area of health.

Ramesh, whose remarks that "women demand mobile phones, they are not demanding toilets" created a controversy last week, said the government is chalking out a plan to take the help of eight lakh women volunteers, affiliated to NRHM, to promote awareness to sanitation issues.

Comments

 

Other News

Income Tax dept holds Ghatkopar Outreach on new IT Act

The Income Tax Department organised an outreach programme in Ghatkopar, Mumbai, to raise awareness about the key features of the Income Tax Act, 2025, effective April 1, 2026. The initiative is part of a nationwide effort to promote taxpayer awareness, simplify compliance, and strengthen a transparent, eff

Making AI work where governance is closest to people

India’s next governance leap may not solely come from digitisation. It will come from making public systems more intelligent, more adaptive, and more responsive to the dynamics at the grassroots. That opportunity is especially significant at the panchayat level, where governance is not an abstract po

Borrowing troubles: How small loans are quietly trapping youth

A silent crisis is playing out in the pocket of young India, not in stock markets or government treasuries, but in smartphones of college students and first-jobbers who clicked on the Apply Now button without reading the small print.  A decade ago, to take a loan, you had to do some paperwor

A 19th-century pilgrim’s progress

The Travels of a Sadhu in the Himalayas By Jaladhar Sen (Translated by Somdatta Mandal) Speaking Tiger Books, 259 pages, ₹499.00  

India faces critical shortage of skin donors amid rising burn cases

India reports nearly 70 lakh burn injury cases every year, resulting in approximately 1.4 lakh deaths annually. Experts estimate that up to 50% of these lives could be saved with adequate access to skin donations.   A significant concern is that around 70% of burn victims fall wi

Not just politics, let`s discuss policies too

Why public policy matters Most days, India`s loudest debates stop at the ballot box. We can name every major leader and recall every campaign slogan. Still, far fewer of us can explain why a widow`s pension is delayed or how a government school`s budget is actually approved. That


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter