NEW DELHI, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- While summing up his accomplishments in the past two years, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi thought building 20 million toilets across the country deserved a special mentioning.
In a speech delivered on Monday during the Indian Independence Day celebrations, Modi told a cheering crowd that "more than 20 million toilets have been built in India's villages and more than 70,000 are free of open defecation."
Though providing people with toilets does not seem like a very high standard in the 21st century, the feat is indeed a leap for the South Asian country which was notorious for its poor sanitation conditions.
Open defecation has long been a major health and sanitation problem in India, where almost 594 million people -- nearly half the population -- defecate in the open, according to the United Nations Children's Fund.
The lack of toilets has led to a host of chronic social issues as it can help spread diseases such as diarrhoea and has even contributed to rampant sexual assaults on females, according to news reports.
