Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized on Thursday the Swachh Bharat Mission’s (SBM) important contributions to public health, especially to India’s declining baby and child death rates. His remarks were in reaction to a study that looked at how the SBM affected sanitation and health outcomes and was published in the British scientific journal Nature.
PM Modi highlighted the importance of having access to hygienic amenities, such clean and secure restrooms, in a post on X, the platform that was once known as Twitter. This has been shown to be a critical component in reducing the rates of infant and child mortality. Reflecting on the favorable developments seen since the SBM’s implementation, he called better sanitation a “game-changer” for public health in India.
The Indian government launched the Solid Waste Management (SBM) program on October 2, 2014, with the goal of improving solid waste management nationwide and doing away with open defecation. India’s construction of toilets has dramatically increased as a result of the program. According to the research article that PM Modi cited, the public’s health has been significantly impacted by the widespread installation of restrooms.
According to the report, India experienced faster declines in baby and child death rates after implementing SBM as opposed to the years prior to the mission’s start. More specifically, the paper calculates that widespread access to restrooms may have prevented between 60,000 and 70,000 newborn deaths every year. The considerable health advantages of improved sanitation are highlighted by this finding.
In his tweet, PM Modi expresses his happiness with India’s leadership in promoting clean sanitation practices and highlights how SBM has a profoundly positive impact on public health. In order to highlight the effectiveness of the SBM and emphasize the significance of ongoing sanitation efforts, he presented the research paper’s conclusions.
The study emphasizes how important it is to address sanitation concerns globally and indicates that revolutionary sanitation programs, such as SBM, can have a major positive impact on health in low- and middle-income nations. The SBM has been instrumental in improving health outcomes and boosting public health in India by expanding access to clean toilets.
Overall, the Swachh Bharat Mission’s focus on sanitation has improved health indicators and decreased mortality rates, highlighting the crucial connection between public health and sanitation infrastructure.
SOURCE :
NDTV
