Heller, whose two-week visit to India ended on Friday, said the implementation of the campaign to make India open defecation-free should not be "human rights free".
India has deplored the United Nations Special Rapporteur (UNSR) Leo Heller's comments that Mahatma Gandhi's glasses – the campaign's symbol of Swachh Bharat – should be replaced with the 'human rights lens'. In a strongly worded statement, the government here said that Heller, who is UNSR on human rights, safe drinking water and sanitation, has demonstrated lack of understanding.
"The world knows that Mahatma was the foremost proponent of human rights, including for sanitation, his unique and special focus. Gandhiji's glasses, the unique logo of the Swachh Bharat Mission, epitomise core human rights principles," the statement added.
Heller, whose two-week visit to India ended on Friday, said the implementation of the campaign to make India open defecation-free should not be "human rights free". He claimed that authorities used "aggressive and abusive practices" to deliver on targets to build toilets. The government said such sweeping judgements were either factually incorrect, based on incomplete information, or grossly misrepresent the drinking water and sanitation situation on the ground.
The statement said the Swachh Bharat Mission and the rural and urban drinking water programmes fully conform to the Human Rights Criteria and Principles as established by the UN system. Listing its achievements, the statement said over 25 crore people have got sanitation facilities in three years, since the current government assumed office. Over 2.7 lakh villages, 227 ODF districts and 6 ODF states are open defecation free (ODF). More than 77% of the habitations in rural areas have access to at least 40 Litres Per Capita per Day (LPCD) of water supply and another 90% people in urban areas have access to safe drinking water.
Referring to the incomplete understanding of water and sanitation in India, the statement says that the UNSR has failed to acknowledge the paradigm shift in national sanitation policy which has moved from construction of toilets to open defecation free communities and seems to be looking at the SBM from a tinted lens. Regarding the allegation about the lack of toilets in government schools, the UNSR's claim citing a report by a private organisation is denied.
It may be noted that an unprecedented programme to ensure separate toilets for boys and girls in every school was successfully implemented in just one year between August 2014 and August 2015.
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