Modi receives cleanliness award
GLOBAL GOALKEEPER AWARD Felicitated by Gates Foundation, PM dedicates honour to Indians who took part in swachh drive
NEWYORK :Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dedicated to the 1.3 billion people of India the Global Goalkeeper Award 2019 given to him by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) in recognition of the effort he has spearheaded to provide toilets and promote sanitation in the world’s second most populous nation.
“The honour is not mine but of the crores of Indians who not only fulfilled the Swachh Bharat dream but also made it a part of their daily lives,” Modi said in a 15-minutes speech at the event.
He said, “A strong democracy is one that creates policies that keeps the needs of the people in the centre.In the last five years, more than 11 crore (110 million) toilets were constructed. The Swachh Bharat mission has benefitted women and girls the most. They had to wait for dark to go out or drop out of school because of the lack of toilet facilities.”
“India is ready to share best practices with other nations so that we can collectively work to improve global sanitation standards,” said Modi.
This is the third big international award for Modi, who won the Seoul Peace Prize 2018 for reducing social and economic disparity and rooting out corruption; and the 2018 UNEP Champions of the Earth Award, the UN’s highest environmental honour, for championing the International Solar Alliance and pledging to eliminate single-use plastic in India by 2022.
Under the Swachh Bharat campaign launched on October 2, 2014, to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary, 100,467,789 toilets have been built and 599,963 villages been declared open-defecation free. Building toilets and improving sanitation is helping India meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The award sparked protests by activists in “I stand by Kashmir” T-shirts who picketed the Gates Foundation’s office in Seattle and handed over a petition containing 100,000 signatures demanding the award be rescinded.
Three Nobel laureates—peace activist Mairead Maguire from Northern Ireland; politician-activist Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Karman from Yemen; and lawyer-activist Shirin Ebadi from Iran — backed the protest. Human rights groups and activists have been critical of the award being given to Modi. “The BMGF award, along with the Seoul Peace Prize and UNEP’s Champions of the Earth Prize, serve to legitimise and embolden Modi and his supporters to intensify their divisive politics...” said Lyla Mehta from the Institute of Development Studies, UK, in an open letter signed by 27 developmental academics and activists.
The Foundation gives the annual award on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings to celebrate efforts that have improved the lives of the poor and accelerated efforts to meet the SDGs, which are 17 actions to end poverty, protect the planet and provide a better future by 2030.
“A World Health Organization (WHO) estimation of the potential health impacts of Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin in 2018 found it averted at least 300,000 deaths and more than 14 million DALYs (disability-adjusted life years, which is a measure of lost productivity) between 2014 and October 2019,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director, WHO South East Asia Region.
“Sanitation was chosen because in a lot of countries, it’s not discussed ... India, over the last five years, has allocated resources and really talked about the need to clean up. India is an exemplar on this and so it’s very appropriate to have an award for something that is not as visible as vaccine coverage,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation, in an exclusive interview to HT earlier this month.