World Toilet Day 2025: India Champions Responsible Sanitation for Dignity and the Planet
MoHUA launches ‘Toilet Paas Hai’ & ‘Main Saaf Hi Achha Hoon’ as global leaders gather for World Toilet Summit
The Impressive TimesNew Delhi : India marked World Toilet Day 2025 with a renewed commitment to sustainable sanitation, dignity, and environmental protection. Celebrated under the theme “Sanitation: Collective Responsibility for Dignity and Planet”, the day witnessed major national initiatives led by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and global participation aimed at accelerating sanitation innovation.
In collaboration with Sulabh International and the World Toilet Organization, MoHUA inaugurated the 3-day World Toilet Summit 2025 in New Delhi. The event brought together representatives from 25 countries, international organisations like the World Bank and BMGF, and industry partners such as HUL. Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal and Union Minister for Jal Shakti C.R. Patil addressed the inaugural session.
Responding to the Prime Minister’s call for Swachh Bharat in 2014, India achieved the historic milestone of being declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) in 2019. The construction of toilets in every household ensured not just cleanliness and safety, but also dignity, better health outcomes, and improved school attendance for girls.
With rapid urbanisation and increasing migration, India is now strengthening climate-resilient and sustainable sanitation systems, essential for achieving SDG-6 on clean water and sanitation.
Marking the occasion, MoHUA unveiled two major national campaigns:
‘Toilet Paas Hai’ – to help citizens easily locate accessible public toilets.
‘Main Saaf Hi Achha Hoon’ – an advocacy drive promoting responsible toilet use and hygiene habits among communities.
The ministry also released new advisories, design guidelines, and behaviour change training modules to empower Urban Local Bodies under Swachh Bharat Mission–Urban 2.0.
To enhance user experience and ensure safe sanitation, SBM-U 2.0 is promoting Aspirational Toilets across high-footfall areas such as tourist spots and religious sites. These modern facilities feature:
Smart and user-friendly designs
Inclusive and accessible infrastructure
Gender-neutral and child-friendly amenities
Environmentally sustainable technology
So far, 29,000 Aspirational Toilet seats have been approved nationwide.
Addressing the summit, Shri Manohar Lal emphasised the need for wastewater treatment, circular economy models, and early sanitation education, stating:
“Cleanliness is not judged by a tidy room, but by the condition of one’s toilet.”
Union Minister Shri C.R. Patil highlighted the empowerment of women through access to toilets, noting that rural sanitation has saved the lives of nearly 3 lakh children annually by preventing diarrhoeal deaths.
The next two days of the summit will focus on technology innovations, inclusive design, financing models, capacity building, and improving the dignity and safety of SafaiMitras.
World Toilet Day 2025 reiterates India’s leadership in showing that sanitation is not just an infrastructure issue—it is central to health, dignity, climate resilience, and societal progress.
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