Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to honour PM Modi for providing safer sanitation to 50 crore people

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's will honour Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Swachh Bharat Mission, a sanitation initiative that improved access to toilets.

In a statement issued on Monday in Seattle,USA, the Gates Foundation said, Mr Modi will receive its annual Goalkeepers Global Goals Award for providing 500 million people in India safer sanitation. Mr Modi will be in the United States next week to receive the foundation's award.

The Swachh Bharat



Mission was launched in 2014 and its components include the construction of household toilets, community and public toilets and solid waste management.

According to the latest government data, the rural sanitation coverage has reached 99.99 per cent till now from 39 per cent in 2014. Over ten crore household toilets have been built so far under Swachh Bharat Mission while 35 States and Union Territories have been declared Open Defecation Free.