After winning National Award for Best Actress for her movie ‘The Dirty Picture’, actress Vidya Balan was honored yet again as she was made brand ambassador of government's sanitation programme to spread awareness about sanitation and cleanliness in the country.
“For an actor, what can be a better thing than doing a dirty picture on screen and off screen a clean picture. I think this role will work a lot because we are working on a national movement,” said the actress to a daily.
“I think it is a matter great honor for me, becoming the brand ambassador of sanitation campaign. It needs to become a national obsession. I am ready to (do it) in my capacity. I am convinced,” she added.
Jairam Ramesh, Rural Development Minister said that involvement of Vidya Balan in this cause will make the campaign to end open defecation a "national obsession".
“Vidya's involvement in the campaign will help make it a national obsession,” Ramesh said.
Ramesh said that Vidya Balan will be involved with the campaign for 2 years from now.
“She (Vidya Balan) has agreed to give her time for the campaign for two years. She will be fully involved in the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan--(the re-structured version of the Total Sanitation Campaign),” he said.
“This is a clean picture (for Vidya Balan),” he added with a smile.
He said the campaign will focus on propagating construction and use of toilets besides promoting habit of hand washing, personal hygiene and managing waste.
According to UNICEF-WHO Joint Monitoring Programme Report 2010, nearly 60 percent of India’s 1.1 billion people still practice open defecation. Nearly 58 percent of all open defecation in the world is in India.