Vidya's clean picture

Bollywood actress Vidya Balan will be the brand ambassador for the Total Sanitation Campaign which will spread awareness about sanitation and cleanliness in the country.

The Total Sanitation Campaign aims to rid the country of the blot of open defecation by the year 2017. She signed up as a special ambassador on Thursday and she will associate herself with the campaign for two years. She will be fully involved in the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan--the restructured version of the Total Sanitation Campaign. 

Vidya has been appointed by the Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said, "She will appear in ad campaigns to propagate construction and use of toilets. Balan is the first brand ambassador of the Ministry. Vidya's involvement will make the campaign to end open defecation a national obsession."

Vidya Balan said that, "This role will work a lot because they are working on a national movement. It is a matter of great honour for me to become the brand ambassador of sanitation campaign."

She added, “We have to make sanitation a national obsession. I will do all that I am required to do in this endeavour. My role in this initiative will be for a clean picture in India. What could be a matter of more pride than doing a dirty picture on screen and a clean picture off it? This is the real me.”

Jairam Ramesh said that, Vidya was the most perfect personality to promote the cause and hailed her for instantly responding to his call and agreeing to devote at least five days to the campaign. She would propagate sanitation awareness through audio-visual advertisements on television and radio and on hoardings, besides attending promotional events like National Day for Sanitation, the National Nirmal Gram Puraskar Award presentation and the launch of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan.

Vidya has also agreed to visit at least two nirmal gram villages and as many open-defecation villages to laud the achievers and urge those who are stuck to the practice to use toilets instead.

Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has also requested Shah Rukh Khan to be a brand ambassador for the human resource development ministry’s adult education programme. Shah Rukh Khan is expected to take up the off-screen role next week.

Apart from Vidya Balan and Shah Rukh, the ministry has involved actors such as Kareena Kapoor, Farhan Akhtar and Priyanka Chopra for the campaign. A source said that Aamir Khan will be the brand ambassador for a school sanitation campaign.

It is said that the actors would be doing these campaigns free.

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- Unknown Updated at: Tuesday, May 08, 2012