WORLD TOILET DAY 2023: Access to proper sanitation is a basic human right, it is directly associated with respect and dignity of a human being. Sanitation is needed at all levels of the society, and is imperative in all sense. Improper sanitation measures harms the society in a very negative manner and discourages healthy human practices.
The latest United Nations data shows that right now approximately 3.5 billion people doesn’t have the access to safe toilets and around 419 million people practice ‘open defecation’ regularly. Hence, in order to remove this evil, which is the basis cause of may diseases, United Nations Organization celebrates WORLD TOILET DAY on 19 November every year.
The World Toilet Day is celebrated all over the world to raise the awareness about the importance of following proper sanitation practices, it was established in 2001 and made an official United Nations Observance in 2013. The theme for the World Toilet Day 2023 is ‘Accelerating Change for Safe Sanitation’, the focus of the theme is on accelerating change through collective human efforts.
The United Nations try to explain the concept of the toilet day with the help of a hummingbird, it believes that as a hummingbird fights fire by bringing little water in her beak, and signifies every small contribution counts, toilet serves as that hummingbird for proper sanitation and it will help in solving the bigger problem.
The word ‘Toilet’ in the World Toilet day has been chosen deliberately instead of the word ‘Sanitation’ so that it captivates the interest of more and more people and inspire them to work toward achieving the Goal 6 of the Sustainable development Goals, which the world wants to achieve by the end of 2030.
However, the world is seriously off track on achieving this goal and need to work with the speed 5 times the current one. The United Nations suggest following actions on from an individual as a hummingbird.
- The United Nations seriously wants individual to come outside and make their contribution in breaking the taboos about toilets, water and menstruation
- United Nations ask people to not put waste, oils , medicines and chemicals down the toilet and drains
- It also ask people to ask their elected representative to allocate the budget for improving water and sanitation
