Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred with the Global Goalkeeper Award by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by the Indian government.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was one of the first few ambitious projects that PM Modi launched in his first term at the Centre in 2014.
In a series of tweets, Modi thanked the countrymen for contributing to the grand success of the campaign.
Modi said in his speech,
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. The poor people and the women of India were benefitted the most by it.
According to Modi, the highlight of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was the 11 crore toilets that were constructed in rural areas benefitting rural sanitation. He also added that the due to lack of toilets, a number of girls had to drop out of schools. They had to abandon their education mid-way and sit at home.
Modi also said this campaign fulfilled Gandhi’s dream of cleanliness in the country . Even the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation reported a a decline in heart problems among children and improvement in the Body Mass Index (BMI) among women.
Although Modi was celebrating this Award, Twitter had divided reactions to the same.
Just days prior, the news of the conferment of the Award on Modi was met with strong opposition from Nobel laureates who demanded that the award be withdrawn owing to the Kashmir controversy. One Gates’ Foundation staffer even quit over this issue.
The campaign was acknowleged by The World Health Organisation (WHO) saying that the government’s effort in this and the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has created a possibility to save 3 lakh lives.