NewsGram Staff Writer

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, mentioning that India has always focused on personal hygiene, said on Friday that it should now focus on social hygiene as well.

"Cleanliness is basically a habit and once you imbibe this habit then you will never tolerate dirt," Modi said after giving away the 'Safaigiri' awards 2015.

"In our country, personal hygiene has been a focus, but social hygiene is an issue. People are very cautious about personal hygiene. But we have been not giving much importance to social hygiene," he said adding, "we now have to give importance to social hygiene."

The awards have been instituted by the India Today Group to identify individuals or institutions in 13 categories to award them for their inspiring work.

Modi said since independence Indians have always thought the government has to do everything "but this has to change now."

"Swachch Bharat programme will never be successful it is taken as the government or Modi's programme. This has to be our programme," he said.

"I have taken this risk (of launching the programme) and I think there can be no bigger inspiration than Mahatma Gandhi for this. Since the country gained independence the parliament has never discussed cleanliness. But since the last year, there has been no session where it has not been discussed," he added.

(With inputs from IANS)