New Delhi, March 18, 2012: The Communist Party of India has suggested that the government call a meeting of Chief Ministers, especially of those States where manual scavenging is prevalent, to work on measures to eradicate it.

Reminding the government of its January 2011 announcement to conduct a fresh survey in the country to identify locations of dry latrines and the number of manual scavengers in the country, party MP D. Raja said, “it is a shame to note that even after 13 months the process has not begun.''

New Delhi, March 16, 2012: Union Minister Jairam Ramesh today described as "trend-setter" the Union Budget which proposes an increase of Rs 8000 crore in the total allocation for rural development including drinking water supply and sanitation.

Last year, the total allocation for Rural Development which includes drinking water supply, sanitation and the National Social Assistance Programmes (NSAP) was Rs 91000 crore. This year, the proposed allocation for the sector has been increased to Rs 99000 crore.

New Delhi, March 16, 2012: The Union Finance Minister announced an increase of 27 per cent in the allocation for rural drinking water and sanitation. The budget for this year went up to Rs 14,000 crore from Rs 11,000 crore last year. The rural sanitation programme has got a whopping increase of 133 per cent, up from Rs 1500 crore to Rs 3500 crore.
Given the dismal figures posted by recent reports such as the WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Report and the Census 2011 results, this is a welcome move.

New Delhi, March 15, 2012: Stating that sanitation is a "complete disaster" in India, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday urged the Planning Commission to make the issue "a national obsession" otherwise it would remain as a "scourge" on the society.

Referring to the new Census results which said that almost 60 per cent of India's population is still defecating in the open, Ramesh said it is a "real blot on us as we can send satellites into space, but we can't put toilets on the ground."

Gurgaon, March 15, 2012: After failing to utilize its budget in the last financial year, the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) has prepared an annual budget for 2012-13 that drastically cuts developmental spending by over Rs 165 crore. While in the previous year, Rs 487.29 crore was allocated for development, this year only Rs 322 crore has been put aside for the same.

Chennai, March 15, 2012: The census 2011 figures on the state of sanitation in Tamil Nadu present a grim picture with little improvement from the previous decade. Even today, 45.7% of the state's population resorts to open defecation due to the absence of proper sanitation facilities.

New Delhi, March 13: India's first socioeconomic census in over a decade, and the first comprehensive survey of the population in the post-reform era, has shown how life has radically altered for many Indians over this period — and how it hasn't.
Nearly two-thirds of households in India now have access to phones and LPG for cooking.

New Delhi, March 13, 2011: Drinking water is supposed to be one of India's success stories - the government says it met its Millennium Development Goal on water five years ahead of time, and that its rural drinking water mission has reached every uncovered habitation.

Yet Census 2011 data shows that 20% of Indian households have to travel more than half a kilometer for drinking water, and that this figure has actually grown in rural India.

New Delhi, March 13, 2012:  Nearly half of India defecates in the open but at the same time more than 63 per cent have access to either a landline or a mobile phone.

And, even more interestingly nearly half (47.2 per cent) of India also have a television set at home.

Television also emerged as the key mode communication for India registering a 16 per cent growth over the last similar Census of 2001.

New Delhi, March 13: India's first socioeconomic census in over a decade, and the first comprehensive survey of the population in the post-reform era, has shown how life has radically altered for many Indians over this period — and how it hasn't.

Nearly two-thirds of households in India now have access to phones and LPG for cooking. But less than half the number of households have access to basic toilet facilities and over a third do not have access to safe drinking water.