World Toilet Organisation founder Jack Sim lauds Swachh Bharat campaign
Jun 29, 2024
Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) [India], June 29 : World Toilet Organisation founder Jack Sim has lauded the Swachh Bharat campaign and said that he has seen constant improvement in cleanliness in India during his visits to the country.
Jack Sim also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi reminds him of first Singapore PM Lee Kuan Yew, who he worked for cleaning rivers and streets and tackling corruption.
"Every trip I come to India, I see improvement. I see also the Shobhit University ranking going up year by year. So that's something very nice to see," Jack Sim told ANI
He said Prime Minister Modi initiated Swachh Bharat campaign and millions of toilets have been built.
"Prime Minister Modi has a Swachh Bharat campaign that is to build toilets and we are very very happy to help him in his success to build 110 million toilets," he said.
According to official data, over 11 crore toilets and 2.23 lakh Community Sanitary Complexes have been built across all states and union territories under Swachh Bharat Mission - Grameen.
Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2022 covered 17,559 villages in 709 districts in 33 States/UTs across India interviewing 1,75,521 households in 17,559 villages.
Based on SSG 2022, 95.4 per cent of surveyed households have access to toilet and 95.4 per cent of those having toilet have been using it regularly
"When I look at Prime Minister Modi, he reminds me of our first Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew. He cleaned up the streets. He is a very good man. He cleaned up the river, he cleaned up the toilets, then he cleaned up the corruption in the government and then he cleaned up the secret society and the gangsters. I think that the clean mindset is not just about clean toilet, but it is about the cleanliness of our spirit. That's why it's called Swachh Bharat, which is spiritually clean," Jack Sim said.
Jack Sim is the founder World Toilet Organization. Formerly from the construction industry, he decided to devote the rest of his life to social work after attaining financial independence at the age of 40.
He was awarded "Doctor of Literature" for distinguished work in the field of sanitization by former President Ram Nath Kovind during the convocation ceremony of Shobhit University here.
Kovind awarded "Doctor of Science" to the Managing Director of Center for Pavement Excellence, Asia Pacific Limited, Australia, Brian O'Donnell, for his distinguished work in the fields of waste to energy and road stabilisation, according to Shobhit University press release.
Kovind was the chief guest at Shobhit University's 15th convocation. Vice Chancellor Vinod Kumar Tyagi welcomed the guests and presented the progress report of the university.
During the convocation, Ram Nath Kovind presented gold medals to 39 students, the release said. Ninety eight PhD students and 638 undergraduate and postgraduate students received degrees.
Congratulating the students, the former president said that their success is the result of collective efforts.
"I am very proud to know that out of 39 gold medal winners, 24 have been achieved by our daughters. There should be women empowerment, only then we can take the country forward," he said.