Govt. schemes to give priority to women

Households with women to get toilets on priority

Precedence will be given to women under the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ and the ‘Housing for All by 2022’ schemes.

While households with women will get toilets on a priority basis under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project, the Swachh Bharat Mission, single women and women-headed households will be considered first for allotment of houses under the slum redevelopment and rental housing components of the ‘Housing for All by 2022’ programme.

The Union Urban Development Ministry, which will provide assistance towards construction of 104.1 lakh toilets in households, has decided to accord priority to those households which have pensioners, girl children and pregnant and lactating mothers.

A senior official in the government said the decision to fast track construction of toilets for women in households, in public places as well as for girls in schools has been taken following the Prime Minister’s instructions in his maiden Independence Day speech in August.

In his speech Mr. Modi had focused attention on the increasing incidents of crimes against women, building separate toilets for girls in schools and putting an end to female foeticide among other issues.

Elimination of open defecation, conversion of insanitary toilets into flush toilets, eradication of manual scavenging and ensuring cleanliness and hygiene in public places are the components of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

As part of the Mission, the Ministry will aid the construction of 104.1 lakh household toilets, 2.52 lakh community toilets and 2.56 lakh public toilets and help 30.6 crore people with solid waste management.

“The Ministry is working out the modalities to implement the PM’s directions. Households with women that have no toilets will soon be identified and the resources will be raised for construction purposes,” an official said.

The Ministry has also taken a decision to register houses constructed under the ‘Housing for All’ scheme in the name of the woman head of the household or in the joint name of the male head of the household and his wife, if applicable.

“A vulnerability analysis will also be carried out as part of the slum-free city plan of action which will be drafted by cities as action plan for Housing for All by 2022 to consider women headed households as vulnerable. States will give priority to single women and women headed households at the time of allotting rental accommodation and also reduce the rent for such households by at least 10 per cent,” an official said.