NEW DELHI: More than 67,000 public conveniences in 3,326 cities are now live on Google Maps with the name of ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ (SBM) toilets, according to the latest monthly report of the activities of the ministry of housing and urban affairs.
The report released recently also stated that all 4,372 cities and towns are also ‘open defecation free’ (ODF) and 4,325 of them have been certified through third party verification. Total 3,447 cities have been certified as ODF+, 1,062 cities have been bestowed ODF++ certification and 14 towns have ‘Water+’ recognition.
“This year total 261 urban local bodies (ULBs) are ‘garbage free cities’, increasing the number of one-time certified cities to 445 with one city as 7 star, 11 cities as 5 star, 199 cities as 3 star, and 234 cities as 1 star,” the monthly statement stated.
Efforts to place public toilets on Google Maps were launched as a pilot in New Delhi, Bhopal, and Indore in 2016. This campaign is part of a feature which allows all citizens to locate public toilets in their cities on Google Maps, Search and the Assistant and also provide feedback on the same.
More than 500 cities in India with more than 30,000 toilets with the name of ‘SBM Toilet’ were made live on Google Maps till September 2018. Within a year, it reached 57,000-mark.
To accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and put the focus on sanitation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on October 2, 2014. The aim was to make the rural areas of the country open defecation free (ODF) within five year, by providing access to toilets to all the rural households.