CSR News: Harpic Mission Paani launched India’s first ever preamble for sustainable sanitation on World Toilet Day

Harpic Mission Paani launched India’s first-ever ‘Sanitation for All Pledge and Preamble: Clean Water, Sustainable Sanitation’ with Honourable Minister of Jal Shakti – Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and five prominent women leaders: lyricist Kausar Munir, hockey player Savita Punia, cricketer Smriti Mandhana, table tennis star Bhavina Patel and Olympic medalist & boxer Lovlina Borgohain at the Mission Paani Sanitation Forum on World Toilet Day 2021.

The event also witnessed the unveiling of a coffee table book ‘101 Stories of Inspiration’ endorsed by Vice President Shri M Venkaiah Naidu. The book is a showcase of hope and inspiration stories of sanitation workers in India. The book compiled by the Integrated Health and Wellbeing Council is a tribute to these workers who have risked their lives to create a cleaner and more hygienic environment by taking care of our cleanliness and sanitation needs. The stories are of individuals who have transformed their lives from manual scavenging to a more dignified livelihood.

Aligned to Swachh Bharat Mission and UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, Harpic Mission Paani is a CSR initiative by Reckitt committed to work towards raising awareness and mobilizing action that ensures ‘Leaving No One Behind’. India’s first ever preamble for inclusive sanitation is a step towards collectively promoting an inclusive ecosystem that reinforces our need to come together to create a cleaner and healthier world.

Harpic Mission Paani aims to reach out to over 20 million Indians to drive behaviour change on toilet use and maintenance across India through on-ground partners and Network18 by 2022. The programme will focus on WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) to help enable safe and clean toilets for all and ‘leaving no one behind’ and the success of the program will be measured through Swachh Sarvekshan rankings. From six World Toilet Colleges in 2021, Harpic plans to have 15 colleges spread across India. These World Toilet Colleges will benefit over 2 lakh sanitation workers and their extended families.

Gaurav Jain, Senior Vice President, South Asia, Reckitt commented, “Reckitt’s fight, is to make access to the highest quality hygiene, wellness and nourishment a right, and not a privilege. On World Toilet Day, we are reinforcing our commitment to create an ecosystem to enable access to water supply and sanitation provision which are essential to eradicate poverty. We are bringing the country together to take a pledge to uphold India’s first-ever Preamble for safe water and sanitation. Safe water and safer toilets mean a healthier nation; this must emerge as one of the most critical human rights components in the country’s development narrative.”

The Sanitation Pledge written by renowned lyricist Kausar Munir aims to bring together people from all walks of life to ensure access to clean water and sanitation for all. The pledge is endorsed by Jal Jeevan Mission and Swachh Bharat Mission.
Akshay Kumar, Bollywood actor and Campaign Ambassador for CSR project Mission Paani added, “In the last few years, India has made rapid progress in improving sanitation and ending open defecation across the country. But still a significant population does not have access to toilets and clean drinking water. I am glad that through the Mission Paani initiative, Reckitt and Network18 Group are trying to push for a behavioural change by making us take the sanitation pledge. A lack of sanitation not only impacts health but also holds back economic growth. It is imminent for all of us to support this initiative and take the message to a larger number of people, especially in rural India.”

The World Toilet Day event witnessed participation from prominent public figures. The forum also called for the Indian citizens to collectively undertake efforts to promote inclusion systems, keeping in mind the concerns of under-resourced genders, castes, classes, and abilities. Live reports from Harpic World Toilet Colleges in Rishikesh and Patiala, special interviews and journeys of achievers, were also featured during the event.

The pledge was taken at the Rashtriya Swachhta Kendra, a centre that has been built as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, to drive focus on access to clean drinking water and toilets for all, cleanliness, safe sanitation cycle (build, use, maintain, treat and reuse), to maintain the integrity of groundwater and surface water, safer toilets for healthier lives, and a clean, green life.

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