NGO hails move to introduce bio-toilets in trains, rly stations

The Society for People?s Welfare and Awareness, a city-based NGO, has hailed the decision of the Indian Railways to provide bio-toilets in trains and railway stations as proposed in the Railway Budget.
Dr DS Bhullar, chairman of the society, said: ?It is a welcome step by the Railways. All trains in the country should have eco-friendly bio-toilets. Bio-toilets will ensure that there is no foul smell in toilets and no infestation of cockroaches and flies. It will eliminate the ordeal of removing human waste, which is acidic in nature and causes corrosion in coaches as well as the railway track?.
According to surveys, 60 per cent of the Indian population defecates in the open and annually 2.4 million Indian children die of diarrhoea, caused by open defecation. The Government of India spends around Rs 12 billion on rectifying ailments resulting from improper sanitation. As many as 78 per cent girls in the rural India drop out of school owing to inadequate sanitation facilities. Only 31 per cent of our country?s population has access to proper sanitation facilities. Only 11 per cent of the Indian rural families dispose child excretion safely. Indian Railways spends Rs 350 crore annually on rectifying rail corrosion.s many as 80 per cent of children solid excretion is left in the open or thrown into the garbage.
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