The Housing and Urban Affairs Minister said that the success of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would hugely depend on the success of India just as the success of China in taking people out of poverty led to the success of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said today that the government would meet the target of construction of 72 lakh household and public toilets in urban areas under the Swachh Bharat Mission a year ahead of the schedule of October 2, 2019, and stressed that behavioural change among people was at the “heart” of cleanliness mission which would ensure its success.

The Housing and Urban Affairs Minister said that the success of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would hugely depend on the success of India just as the success of China in taking people out of poverty led to the success of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The minister said the government has set a target of building 67 lakh household toilets and five lakh community or public toilets in urban areas by October 2019.

“As on March 31, we have already built 52 lakh individual household toilets and 3.2 lakh public toilets...well one year in advance of October 2019, well before October 2018, we would build the required amount of toilets in the urban areas of the country,” he said while addressing ‘India Sanitation Conclave 2018', organised by industry body FICCI here.

The Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission) aims to achieve 100 percent open defecation free (ODF) and scientific solid waste management in India by October 2, 2019, the 150th birthday anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

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Noting that there have been “sometimes an artificial discussion” on India's commitment to cleanliness and the SDGs, he said Clean India Mission was announced in 2014, while the 2030 SDGs were adopted a year later.

“The previous set of development goals -- the Millennium Development Goals -- were conceived, designed and put into a package in which the thinking was done by the West -- the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -- and these were developed in Paris and then brought as a package to the UN to all the member states on the basis of as is, where is, take it or leave it package,” he said.

Puri said the success of the MDGs “essentially revolved around the fact the China was able to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and India also did well in that front and took the number two slot".

“The beauty of the SDGs was that they were negotiated by the 193 member states and all stakeholders put together… The MDGs succeeded because of China and the SDGs will succeed because of India. If India succeeds, the SDGs succeeds because India is that one next bastion which is right in the centre of the whole SDG exercise,” he said.