UN expert punches holes in Swachh Bharat Mission

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet 'Swachh Bharat' mission on Friday came in for sharp criticism by a top UN expert who said it "lacked a holistic human rights approach".

United Nation Special Rapporteur on safe drinking water and sanitation Leo Heller presented a preliminary report of his visit to India at a press conference where he insisted that the Centre's emphasis on building toilets "should not overshadow" the focus on provision of safe drinking water to all.

"In the last two weeks I have visited rural and urban areas, slums and settlement camps where undocumented

population is residing... and I have found that these initiatives lack a human rights approach," he said. A press release by The office of the High Commissioner, United Nations Human Rights, also issued a press release on the issue, which had a reference to Mahatma Gandhi; it immediately elicited strong criticism from the government.

Heller was quoted as saying in the release which was distributed at the press conference: "Everywhere I went, I saw the logo of the Clean India Mission - (Mahatma) Gandhi's glasses. In its third year of implementation, now is a critical time to replace the lens of those glasses with the human rights lens," Heller was quoted as saying in the release.

Taking a strong note of his remarks on the logo of the Clean India Mission, the government issued a statement deploring that it showed "serious insensitivity towards the Father of the Nation". PTI