The Swachh Bharat Mission, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was also one of the key initiatives to eradicate caste discrimination, said Pankaj Jain, chairman of Sulabh Sanitation Mission Foundation.

Addressing at the TIDES conference here today, Pankaj Jain said open defecation had paved the way for discriminating human beings earlier and the construction of toilets through the campaign had reduced it considerably now. “More than 1.5 million toilets have been built by the foundation and people from other countries are also adopting the model,” he said and added that the country would be free from open defecation through the campaign.

Commenting on the dumping of dead bodies on the river Ganga, Pankaj Jain said NGOs should offer support and help cremating the corpses of poor people as lack of money was one of the main reasons behind this. “The Government is also ready to support such initiatives,” he said.

The conference was organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).