Swachh Bharat mission logo: Govt slams UN expert on Gandhi remark

NEWDELHI: Government on Friday lashed out at a top UN expert who said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet Swachh Bharat mission “lacked a holistic human rights approach,” and blamed him for showing “serious insensitivity” towards Mahatma Gandhi with his certain comments.

Leo Heller, the United Nation Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, presented a preliminary report of his visit to India at a press conference on Friday where he insisted that the Centre’s emphasis on building toilets “should not overshadow” the focus on providing drinking water to all.

He will submit a full report with recommendations at the 39th session of the Human Rights Council in September 2018.

He said the government’s initiative lacked a human rights’ approach and it was evident from his visit to the “rural and urban areas, slums and settlement camps where undocumented population is residing.

What irked the government more was Heller’s statement that “now is a critical time to replace the lens of those glasses (Gandhi’s glasses, logo of the Swachh Bharat Mission) with the human rights lens.”

In a sharp rebuttal, government said “world knows that the Mahatma was the foremost proponent of human rights, including for sanitation, his unique and special focus.”

It then said Gandhiji’s glasses epitomise core human rights principles.

Heller is currently a researcher in the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil and a former professor of the Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering at the Federal University of Minas Gerais.

The UNSR on human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation was in India on a visit from October 27 to November 10.

Government said while the UNSR appears to compliment India’s efforts in recent years in addressing gaps in water and sanitation services through an “unprecedented commitment”, he went on to make “sweeping judgements which are either factually incorrect, based on incomplete information, or grossly misrepresent the drinking water and sanitation situation on the ground.”

Heller visited New Delhi, Kolkata, Imphal, Lucknow and Mumbai during his stay in the country.

He is entrusted with the job to monitor, report and advise on the realisation of the human rights to water and sanitation across the world. Heller pointed that in certain areas people belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes faced “discrimination” in accessing toilets.