Innovative Public Toilets Mark 12 Years of Swachh Bharat

The correct answer is 2 October 2014, the date from which the mission counts the twelve years it now completes. Option A names Independence Day of the same year, a date often associated with the announcement of national programmes, which makes it the most attractive wrong choice. Options C and D shift the year forward and would put the anniversary out by a full twelve months. The mission began by getting cities to build toilets, raise awareness and work towards Open Defecation Free status, after which many went further and achieved ODF plus and ODF double plus grades. Its urban arm later added a quality goal through the Toilets two point zero initiative, and a user can now locate the nearest community or public facility through the toilet locator on the Swachhata application. Linking the launch date to the Gandhi Jayanti of that year is the easiest way to retain it.

The correct answer is Bengaluru, in Karnataka, where an old vehicle at the Majestic terminal of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation was converted into a facility for women alone. It holds three Indian-style and two Western-style commodes, a sanitary napkin vending machine and an incinerator for menstrual hygiene, and a dedicated space where mothers can feed babies and change nappies, while its sensor lights run on solar power the facility itself generates. The three wrong options are the other cities in the same account, each with a different innovation: Bhopal runs the Freshrooms smart lounges at a market, Navi Mumbai built toilets out of recycled plastic at Koparkhairane, and Tirupati maintains large complexes for pilgrims. Matching each city to its own innovation is the surest way to answer whichever pairing the question asks for.

The correct answer is 11,700 bottles and 35,200 caps. The structure built by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation at Sector 14, Koparkhairane, uses 426 square metres of recycled plastic sheeting, which includes 5.3 metric tonnes of single-use plastic, and the builders also reused 85 repurposed computer keyboards and 284 kg of scrap metal. A fountain running on treated sewage water completes the design, and the site stands near the Nisargudyan urban garden where 8,000 to 9,000 visitors come each day. The other options carry invented counts of the sort an examiner uses to test whether a candidate has learnt the bottle figure together with the cap figure. The toilet also has separate sections for men and women, units for children and for persons with disabilities, baby care stations and sanitary pad vending machines.

The correct answer is Satara district of Maharashtra. The municipal council there collects 300 to 350 kg of sanitary waste a day from hospitals, clinics, households and other premises, placed red bins inside public toilets, and worked with women residents to form awareness groups that carried the message through residential areas. It allotted land for a Common Biomedical Waste Treatment Facility of 600 kg a day, which the Karad Hospital Association operates and maintains, and the council pays nothing for the treatment of the waste it collects. The central incinerator reaches temperatures of up to 1,200 degrees Celsius, gases are filtered, and emissions are watched in real time through a link to the State Pollution Control Board system. The other three options are neighbouring districts of western Maharashtra, close enough to be tempting but not the right one.