The Government of India is making open defecation central to its agenda for the next five years, planning to work to wipe out the practice by 2019, in time for the celebration of Mahatma Ghandi's 150th birthday.
India's government has now woken up to the need to change attitudes, he said, with a "Take the poo to the loo" campaign that aims to make open defecation unacceptable, helped by a catchy Youtube video.
In 2011, government members and politicians took an oath to carry out the plan and make Nepal open defecation free by 2017.
The goal is ambitious: make India open defecation-free by 2 October 2019 – the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi.
Last week, the minister for sanitation, a new post, came up with a formidable goal: to make India an open defecation free nation in ten years.
India is, far and away, the country worst blighted by open defecation, made worse by the fact it has a large population crowded onto relatively little land.
Changing behaviour "The main objective is to have an impact on individual behaviour by making them aware that open defecation and lack of hygiene leads to health problems," explains UNICEF Communications Officer Adamou Matti Dan Mallam.
UNICEF is committed to supporting the Malawi Government in order to make the country completely Open Defecation Free by 2015.
He decided to make his TA an Open Defecation Free (ODF) area after witnessing the sanitary transformation in Kaniki, one of his villages, following practical lessons of the District Health Office.
Many countries have made great progress in tackling open defecation, with Vietnam and Bangladesh - where more than one in three people relieved themselves in the open in 1990 - virtually stamping out the practice entirely by 2012.
