As India’s eminent and revered faith leaders bid farewell to the two day Sarva Dharma Swachhta Samvaad and Sankalp event they pledged to work together for sanitation and shanti (peace). Because when nearly 1200 children perish everyday due to lack of adequate clean water, sanitation and hygiene and nearly half of India’s population defecate in the open, a majority due to the lack of access to toilets, it is time that the message from #temples, #gurudwaras, #mosques, #syngogues, #churches and all places of worship resonate with the message of sanitation for all.
Faith leaders agreed, with HH Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji’s leadership and vision, that time had come for meditation and sanitation to work hand in hand. He says that without proper sanitation there can be no meditation and while temples are needed to purify our thoughts, toilets are needed to purify our bodies and both are intimately interwined to our union with the Divine, in any name, shape or form.
The faith leaders pledged in the newly installed Global Interfaith WASH Alliance’s #WASHonWheels centre, bringing the awareness and education of WASH to everyone’s doorstep. The centre had been installed in Junapeethadheshwar Pujya Acharya Mahamandaleshwar Swami Avdheshanand Giri Ji Maharaj’s camp to beautifully motivate pilgrims and devotees to take the #SwachhtaKranti pledge back to their communities and ensure everyone, everywhere has and uses toilets, for safer, healthier lives.
