Akshay Kumar, Bhumi Pednekar feature in new ad campaign for Swachh Bharat Mission - Watch

Mumbai: Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar launched a brand new advertising campaign for the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) in the capital on Sunday. The campaign focuses on promoting the twin pit toilet technology in rural Indis, was launched at a Collectors Convention for Toilet Technology.

The ad also features actress his Toilet: Ek Prem Katha co-star Bhumi Pednekar.

In his welcome address, Shri Parameswaran Iyer, Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, spoke about the contribution made by Kumar to the Swachh Bharat Mission. He said that right from his movie, Toilet Ek Prem Katha, which was seen and appreciated by rural and urban people across the country, to his participation in the twin pit toilet advertisement campaign for the Swachh Bharat Mission, Shri Kumar has been a strong supporter of the sanitation movement underway in the country

Kumar interacted with Swachh Bharat Mission officials, district collectors, communication experts and members from the media on the occasion. During his interaction, he spoke about the need for influencers of society to talk freely about toilets, and empty toilet pits around the country to destigmatize cleaning of one’s own toilet by members of the family itself.

The District Collectors and field officials, during the interaction, spoke about the power of women in leading the sanitation mission in rural areas, and the role played by the movie, Toilet Ek Prem Katha in leading this behaviour change. It was also announced by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation on this occasion that the producers of Toilet Ek Prem Katha have given rights to all State and District teams of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) to screen the movie in villages on a non-commercial basis.

The advertisement campaign launched on Sunday is an effort, supported by the World Bank, towards encouraging this technology using mass media. The film can be found on the YouTube channel of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) (link: tinyurl.com/sbmgramin). It will be translated in several regional languages, and the Hindi version will start airing on television channels with immediate effect.

Watch the ad embedded below:

Watch @akshaykumar and @psbhumi in their latest blockbuster, revealing the secret powers of their #TwinPitToilet#DarwazaBand #SwachhBharat
(Hindi 60s) pic.twitter.com/Dwdj8OG9D3

— Swachh Bharat (@swachhbharat) 27 May 2018

The twin pit toilet technology was invented in India and is the most well-suited toilet technology for rural India, and is recommended by Government of India and the World Health Organization. It is scientifically proven that:

1.         A pit in a standard twin-pit toilet model fills up in roughly 5 years for a 6-membered family

2.         The waste may then be easily re-directed to the second pit

3.         In 6 months to 1 year, the waste in the filled pit decomposes completely

4.       This decomposed waste is safe to handle and rich in NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) nutrients which makes it ideal for use in agriculture

The States are continuously encouraged by the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) to include awareness generation about the above facts as part of their grassroots information, education and communication (IEC) efforts.