Mamata urges pledge to eradicate open defecation menace

Kolkata : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday called for a pledge to eradicate the menace of open defecation on the occasion of World Toilet Day.

"On #WorldToiletDay, let us pledge to eradicate the menace of open defecation. Our State's flagship programme, #MissionNirmalBangla, has been very successful. As of May, 2018, 11 districts, 33,261 Villages, 2,621 Gram Panchayats and 255 Blocks in the State have become #ODF," she said in a tweet.

World Toilet Day is being observed on November 19, inspiring action to tackle the global sanitation crisis.

According to the United Nations, around 60 per cent of the global population - 4.5 billion people - either have no toilet at home or one that doesn't safely manage excreta and 862 million people worldwide still practice open defecation.