New Delhi: First it was Vidya Balan and now it is Bill Gates who has come forward to extend support to Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh's sanitation drive. Gates, who has supported India's battle against polio, will now help alter behavioural patterns connected with sanitation.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Ramesh said, "We discussed how the Gates Foundation can support us in bringing behavioural changes along the lines of the pulse polio campaign."
But that's not all. Gates and Ramesh also discussed whether India could be given a greater focus in the Foundation's work on developing technology for low cost toilets.
Everyday, 11 million passengers travel in Indian Railways and on the agenda was developing a technological solution for toilets in trains. Ramesh pitched for Rs 200 crore from the Gates Foundation for the flagship Bharat Rural Livelihood Foundation.
The BRLF aims to reach out to villagers in 170 districts mostly in Maoist dominated areas, with a corpus of Rs 1000 crore, of which Rs 500 crore would come from the Government of India and the rest from private sources.
Comments
0 comment