Speaking at the matter, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said: “She will appear in ad campaigns to propagate construction and use of toilets.”
He said Balan is the primary brand ambassador of the Ministry.
Ramesh said that Vidya’s involvement will make the campaign to finish open defecation a countrywide obsession.
Balan said: “This role will work so much because they're engaged on a countrywide movement.”
“It is an issue of significant honour for her to become the emblem ambassador of sanitation campaign,” she said.
She has agreed to present her time for the campaign for 2 years and can be fully interested by the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan--the restructured version of the entire Sanitation Campaign.
It could also be recalled that India loses 54 billion US dollars that may be about 24,000 crore rupees a year as a result of poor sanitation and hygiene.
According to UNICEF-WHO Joint Monitoring Programme Report 2010, nearly 60 per cent of India's 1.1 billion people still practice open defecation and shut to 58% of all open defecations on the earth is in India.
