1. About 65% of Indians defecate in places such as fields, railway tracks and abandoned or unfinished constructions.
2. Globally 1.2 billion people defecate in the open, and more than half of them are Indians.
3. About 2 lakh tonnes of faeces is discharged per day in the open in India.
4. On an average, a gram of excreta can contain about a crore viruses, 10 lakh bacteria, 1000 parasites cysts and 100 worm eggs.
5. 1000 children die daily of diarrhoea or other gastro-intestinal diseases.
6. Proper sanitation can reduce risk of diarrhoea by 40%; malnutrition and retardation growth by 60%; cholera by 72%; schistosomiasis (caused by blood flukes) by 77% and blindness by 25%.
Courtesy: The Week, August 31, 2008.
Grateful thanks to The Week.
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