Swachh China: President Xi Calls For ‘Toilet Revolution’ Similar To PM Modi’s Swachh Bharat Mission

Back in 2014, after his election to the country’s top post, Prime Minister Modi had pitched for a Swachh Bharat campaign to improve sanitation and cleanliness all over the country. Now it seems Chinese President Xi Jinping is following in his footsteps as Swachh Bharat is getting lauded across the world.

President Xi has ordered a “toilet revolution” in China with the aim to improve tourism infrastructure. As one of top four countries receiving foreign tourists, China’s sanitation facilities in the rural areas and tourism sites have had a bad reputation as reported by Financial Express.

Acting on a nationwide plan by the Chinese tourism authority, China has already upgraded sanitation facilities at 68,000 tourist locations across the country and plans to upgrade 64,000 more till 2020. Xi has also been exhorting public officials to push for improved facilities both in urban as well as rural areas.

As the Chinese sanitation revolution moves from urban to rural areas, Modi’s Swachh Bharat mission with its push for sanitation facilities in rural areas is improving living standards too. Acting on the plan, over 38 lakh individual toilets and 2.2 lakh community toilets have already been built in India, with many states surpassing their stated targets.

The Modi government has set up an ambitious target of 65.82 lakh individual and five lakh community toilets for itself till the year 2019. The operation was recently commended by Bill Gates for bringing attention to an issue which was considered a social taboo until recently.