Wednesday (September 25): Prime Minister Narendra Modi was today conferred with the “Global Goalkeeper” award by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
He received the award for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by his government.
Mr. Modi dedicated the award to those Indians who transformed the Swachh Bharat campaign into a “people’s movement” and accorded topmost priority to cleanliness in their day-to-day lives.
“Getting the award in the year of Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary is personally significant for me. When 130 crore people take a pledge, any challenge can be overcome,” the prime minister said.
He further said, “No such campaign was seen or heard about in any other country in the recent past. It might have been launched by our government, but people took control of it. As a result, over 11 crore toilets were built in the country in the last five years, which was a record.”
Stressing that the success of the campaign could not be measured in numbers, the prime minister said the poor people and the women of India were benefitted the most by it.
“Due to lack of toilets, a number of girls had to drop out of schools. Our daughters want to study, but because of lack of toilets, they had to abandon their education mid-way and sit at home,” he added.
“Gandhiji used to say a village could only become a model when it was completely clean. Today we are heading towards making the entire country a model,” he said.
Besides the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, many other “people’s movements” such as “Fit India” to promote fitness and preventive healthcare, the “Jal Jeevan Mission” focussing on water conservation and recycling were going on in India, he added.
PM has announced a $150 billion line of credit to the group of Pacific island nations for undertaking solar, renewable energy and climate related projects based on their requirement.
Mr. Modi also attended the India-Pacific Islands Developing States (PSIDS) Leaders’ Meeting.
The meeting was held here on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly. This is the first time he has met the leaders of the PSIDS on the margins of UNGA in a plurilateral format.
There he also announced a total allocation of $12 million to the member states towards implementation of high-impact developmental project in the area of their choice.
