Indian minister pushes for public hygiene

India's rural development minister is pushing a campaign on public hygiene, after a recent survey revealed that India accounts for 58 percent of the world's population practicing open defecation.

Jairam Ramesh says the revelation is a source of national shame and a "sad commentary" on society's failure to address the issue through education and better sanitation.

The government says it spends $350 million a year to build rural toilets, but some 638 million still rely on fields or quiet corners.

The UNICEF report puts China and Indonesia in second place, with each representing 5 percent of the world's 1.1 billion open defecators.

Ramesh said Sunday that filth was polluting the environment as well as public spaces, and Indian rivers had become sewers.

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