'Swachh Bharat' mission to give women priority: Government

New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS) The government Thursday said women will be accorded priority under the 'Swachh Bharat' mission while constructing community and public toilets.

Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Babul Supriyo said one community toilet seat per 25 women and one public toilet seat per 50 women will be built under the mission as against one community toilet seat per 35 men and one public toilet seat per 100 men.

"Community toilets are proposed to be built under 'Swachh Bharat' mission for common use of local communities in an area with 40 percent viability gap funding/grant from the Ministry of Urban Development. Public toilets are to be built on pay and use basis," he said.

Supriyo informed the house that as per the 2011 census, 44,04,752 public toilets were available in the cities.

Maharashtra tops the list with 22 lakh public toilets followed by Tamil Nadu with seven lakh, Karnataka 2.26 lakh, NCT of Delhi 2 lakh, West Bengal 1.86 lakh, Gujarat 1.80 lakh, Andhra Pradesh 1.12 lakh and Chhattisgarh 66,000.

Under 'Swachh Bharat' mission, launched Oct 2 last year, it is targeted to build 1.04 crore household toilets and five lakh community and public toilet seats by 2019, the minister said.