Toilets 2.0 Campaign

In News: Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched Toilets 2.0 campaign at Bengaluru on World Toilet Day 2022.

• India is set to go beyond the Open Defecation Free (ODF) narrative.

About the campaign:

• Aims to change the face of public and community toilets in urban India through collective action involving citizens and Urban Local Bodies.
• The campaign has five thematic areas —

• ‘People for Toilets’
• ‘Partners for Toilets’
• A design challenge under the ‘Design Toilets’ theme
• ‘Rate your Toilet’
• ‘My thoughts – Our Toilets’

• The People for Toilets program is an inter-city competition envisaged for cleaning and maintaining community and public toilets in which top-performing cities will be recognised.

• The Partners for Toilets theme is to forge partnerships with potential organisations for the adoption of community and public toilets for interim cleaning, annual operations and maintenance, one-time financial aid, beautification activities, innovation, and feedback among others.
• The Design Challenge is being organised in collaboration with the Council of Architecture through which entries will be invited from students of architecture and practising architects on designs for aspirational toilets in the two categories of Public toilets and Community toilets. The top designs will be turned into a compendium for cities’ consideration to adopt for their facilities.
• Rate your Toilet is for promoting user feedback to improve public and community toilets
• My thoughts – Our Toilets is a general public survey among citizens on public toilets across the country. A questionnaire on citizen aspiration for toilets will be available on MyGov platform for the public to answer. The results from the survey are expected to help States and cities to understand gaps and provide course corrective measures.

• IA Champion of Change certificate will be rewarded to the participants at the end of the survey.

Significance:

• The campaign will energise and bring States, cities and citizens together to take forward a rich sanitation legacy under the Swachh Bharat Mission that will script the Toilets 2.0 journey of India.
• Clean and safe public restrooms and public spaces will improve the experience and quality of public life.

Source: The Hindu

Previous Year Question

Q1.) What is the aim of the programme ‘Unnat Bharat Abhiyan’? (2017)

1. Achieving 100% literacy by promoting collaboration between voluntary organizations and government’s education system and local communities.
2. Connecting institutions of higher education with local communities to address development challenges through appropriate technologies.
3. Strengthening India’s scientific research institutions in order to make India a scientific and technological power.
4. Developing human capital by allocating special funds for health care and education of rural and urban poor, and organizing skill development programmes and vocational training for them.