Our challenge: latrine for all

The decade of the eighties started yielding remarkable results to the concerted endeavour taken in the field of water supply since the three preceding decades. However, progress in the area of desirable sanitary and hygiene practices were still slow. In fact the coverage of households by sanitary latrines was only about 9.5% at the national level according to the reports of the Census of India in 1991. The corresponding figure for the State of West Bengal was 12.3%. Subsequent to limited access to household latrines and lack of hygiene knowledge, the health indicators depicted were causing concern. The U5 mortality in rural West Bengal was 93.3 and 60% children born in the rural areas had low birth weight (National Family and Health Survey- 1993).