Ujjain (MP) | President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday said cleanliness only will make India healthy and developed and urged people to work in this direction while also fondly recalling that she had started her public life with ‘swachhata' in her hometown.

Addressing the Safai Mitra Sammelan in Ujjain, Murmu praised Madhya Pradesh's Indore city for remaining on top in the cleanliness survey for the seventh time in a row and Bhopal for being the cleanest state capital in the country.

“It gives me immense happiness to honour safai mitras (sanitation workers). Cleanliness only will make the country healthy and developed. By honouring safai mitras we are hounouring ourselves,” she said.

Murmu appealed to the people to take a step forward to make the country “swachh, swasth aur viksit” (clean, healthy and developed).

The president hoped that people across the villages and lanes in the country will come forward to work under the Swachh Bharat Mission and added that by doing so only the nation will be able to implement Mahatma Gandhi's ideals of swachhata' (cleanliness).

“We all know that a step towards cleanliness will help in keeping the country clean. We all should move forward in making the country clean, healthy and developed,” Murmu said.

The Swachh mission has become a nationwide movement in the last 10 years and has led to changes on a wider scale in the country, she said.

“Because of the Swachh Bharat Mission, the level of awareness towards swachhata has increased and people's behaviour towards cleanliness has changed a lot. This gives me immense pleasure,” she said.

Murmu also recalled that she had started her public life with swachhata in her hometown in Odisha where she had worked as the vice chairperson of the Notified Area Council.

“I used to go from one ward to another to inspect the cleanliness work and discuss the issue with safai mitras and others,” she said.

Under the Swachh mission, more than 11 crore toilets were constructed to deal with the problem of open defecation and over 2.25 lakh community cleanliness complexes were constructed. It played a major role in ensuring women's pride, health and safety, she said.

The President also expressed her gratitude towards the government for making the provision of separate toilets for girl students in schools and said it has raised their literacy level.

According to a prestigious survey, because of the Swachh Bharat Mission, the child mortality rate in the country has decreased and the annual health cost of rural families has reduced by an average of Rs 50,000, she said.

Praising the people of Madhya Pradesh for playing a major role in the cleanliness campaign, she said Indore has remained on the top as the cleanest city in the cleanliness survey for the seventh time in a row, while Bhopal has emerged as the cleanest state capital of the country.

The president also lauded the role of sanitation workers and termed them frontline fighters as they played a major role in keeping the city clean and protecting citizens from various diseases associated with filth.

"They play a major role in nation building and by honouring them, we are actually raising our own pride," she said.

The president also said that the Swachh campaign has raised awareness of cleanliness among the people and their behaviour towards swachhata has changed a lot.

On the occasion, Murmu felicitated five safai mitras, including four women, and also laid the foundation stone for the Ujjain-Indore six-lane road, to be built at Rs 1,692 crore.

Those honoured were Anita Chavre, Kiran Khode, Shobha Ghavri, Rashmi Tankle and Gopal Khare, an official said.

MP Governor Mangubhai Patel and Chief Minister Mohan Yadav also addressed the programme.

The president later visited the famous Mahakaleshwar temple, one of the 12 ‘jyotirlings' in the country, and prayed before the deity in the sanctum sanctorum.

Murmu along with the governor and CM also cleaned the shrine premises with a broom as part of the ‘Swachhata Pakhwada' being observed in the country from September 17 (Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday) to October 2 (Gandhi Jayanti).

After visiting Mahakal temple, the President interacted with the artisans making stone sculptures at Shri Mahakal Lok in Ujjain and described them as excellent.

Murmu spoke to sculptors Ishwar Chandra Maharana, Aditya Maharana, Suresh Kumar Ojha and Akshay Kumar Maharana, all from Odisha's Puri district, at Triveni Sabha Mandapam, an official release said.

She told the craftsmen that everyone studies, but not all of them know the art, according to the release. “The work you are doing is very commendable,” she said.

The artisans presented a stone ‘Shivaling' to the President, the release said. Governor Patel and CM Yadav were also present on the occasion.

Yadav said these artisans will be given Rs 1 lakh each as an incentive, according to the release.

Earlier in the day, Murmu planted a Kadamb (Bur flower) sapling on the campus of the more than two-century-old Residency Kothi in Indore. Governor Patel and CM Yadav joined her and planted the saplings of Rudraksh and Parijat trees, respectively, on the premises, officials said