Swachh Bharat Mission

The Prime Minister of India – Mr. Narendra Modi is the pioneer to begin the nation-wide cleanliness campaign known as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. It is a Hindi word which means Clean India Mission. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a formulated version of Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) which was executed in 1999 by the existing government during that period, which was renamed to Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) in 2012. The purpose was to cover all the cities and towns of India to make them clean. The campaign was launched on October 2, 2014 on the same day as of the vision of a Clean India of Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. The first cleanliness drive of this mission was started on September 25, 2014 before its formal launch.

Swachh Bharat Mission-Insights

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a formulated version of Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) which was executed in 1999 by the existing government during that period, which was renamed to Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) in 2012. The Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya campaign is run by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development with the aim of maintaining cleanliness in schools. Many awareness generation programmes on cleanliness have been organized such as speeches over the contribution of great people, essay writing competitions, debates, arts & painting, film shows, role plays related to cleanliness and hygiene. It was also planned to hold a half an hour campaign in schools twice a week involving cleanliness activities by teachers, students, parents and community members. The purpose was to cover all the cities and towns of India to make them clean. The campaign was launched on October 2, 2014 on the same day as of the vision of a Clean India of Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

The Clean India was an aspiration of Mahatma Gandhi regarding which he once said, “Sanitation is more important than Independence”
During Gandhi era , he was very well aware of the poor and dirty condition of the nation
The concept of Swachh Bharat is to give sanitation facilities, including toilets, solid and liquid waste disposal systems, village cleanliness, and safe and enough drinking water supply in all rural and urban cities of the country
It was planned to be achieved by 2019 as a major tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary
The campaign was a great initiative in making people believe and adapt of the importance of cleanliness, since then a lot has changed
The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has achieved important and vital milestones on both the rural and urban fronts and has initiated a nationwide increase of activities to enhance sanitation and cleanliness in the nation
The government has constantly referred to it as one of the most important and popular missions bestowed upon in India.
The mission triggers the people to spend at least 100 hours in a year towards cleanliness in their surrounding areas or other places of the country to make it a successful campaign
It is vital for everyone to learn about cleanliness, hygiene, sanitation and the various diseases that are caused due to poor hygiene.
It is believed that when people instill certain habits from a young age, like washing hands before meals, regular brushing of teeth and bathing every day, it will go a long way
The habits developed at a young age grows and adds into one’s personality

Swachh Bharat Mission-The Campaign

The Clean India Campaign has encouraged many people to make their surroundings clean by adapting cleanliness campaigns within their apartments/communities. One such initiative is Swachha Graha Compost Connect (SGCC) by a Bengaluru woman named Savitha Hiremath, who experimented with different composting procedures by collecting and processing household waste from her apartment complex. Composting is a cleaner option than leaving the mixed waste in a bin. The apartments which process waste into compost are connected to rural farmers located on the outskirts of the city. So that they buy and use the compost for organic farming. Many awareness generation programmes on cleanliness have been organized such as speeches over the contribution of great people, essay writing competitions, debates, arts & painting, film shows, role plays related to cleanliness and hygiene. It was also planned to hold a half an hour campaign in schools twice a week involving cleanliness activities by teachers, students, parents and community members. The purpose was to cover all the cities and towns of India to make them clean. The campaign was launched on October 2, 2014 on the same day as of the vision of a Clean India of Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

The Government of India has instilled with some digital initiatives like Swachh Nagar mobile app through which people will be able to get their household waste picked up by urban municipal bodies. They can also track the waste-collection cart on the app. They have to pay to the civic bodies to avail the service through this app. Another such initiative is “Google Toilet Locator”. Up to now, around 40,000 public toilet blocks across 1400 cities have been mapped and can be seen on Google maps. The Google toilet locator also provides an option for citizens to provide their feedback after using these toilets.

The urban section of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan functions under the supervision of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
It focuses to cover almost 1.04 crore households in order to provide them 2.6 lakh public toilets, 2.5 lakh community toilets together with managing the solid waste in more than 4,000 towns
The Community toilets have been planned to be built in the residential areas where accessibility of individual household toilets is restricted
Public toilets are to be built at designated locations including bus stations, tourist places, railway stations, markets, etc
The Programmes, which have been listed, are complete removal of open defecation, converting non-flush toilets into flush toilets, eradicating manual scavenging, bringing behavioural changes in public for solid waste management
The rural section of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan aims for implementing cleanliness programmes in rural areas.
It is functional under the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation
The campaign is destined at making rural areas free from open defecation by constructing more than 11 crore toilets throughout the country
It is believed that it has achieved its numbers but there are still houses that have been left behind. These will be fixed under the ODF plus mission.
As Union Jal Shakti Minister Mr. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said, “Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS) has launched a 10-year national rural sanitation strategy to make India 100% Open Defecation Free (ODF) place.”
The framework also emphasizes about state-specific strategies on menstrual hygiene management, including menstrual waste disposal management, which may be assisted under the ODF plus strateg
It includes retrofitting of the toilets and making provision to void pits every five years, repairing of defunct ones, and construction of soak pits for septic tanks wherever it is needed
A district-level training management unit will be constructed to provide support to Gram Panchayats so that they assure operation and maintenance of sanitation infrastructure
The GPs are also supposed to organize rapid assessment of gaps in water supply and sanitatio
It is believed that there is a big plan of converting waste into bio-fertilizer and other useful energy forms and the mission involves the participation of Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads.

Swachh Bharat Mission-The Survey

Swachh Sarvekshan is an yearly survey of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation in cities and towns across India
It was launched as a part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
The Ministry of Home and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) organized its first survey of ‘Swachh Sarvekshan’ for ranking 73 cities (Urban Local Bodies) in January 2016
To spread the coverage of cities, the Ministry continued to conduct its surveys every year to rank cities and award them in various categories
In 2019, it scaled even greater heights by covering 4,237 cities in a completely digital format
In 2020, it will make the assessment on a quarterly basis under two categories—cities with a population of one lakh and above and those of less than one lakh
The Finance Ministry started collecting some funds known as Swachh Bharat cess (0.5% on all services in India) to ensure its function
For his focussed efforts on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi received the ‘Global Goalkeeper’ Award from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on September 24, 2019 at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Session in New York
One can say Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has brought in a lot of change by making India free from the slur of open defecation
They have to pay to the civic bodies to avail the service through this app. Another such initiative is “Google Toilet Locator”. Up to now, around 40,000 public toilet blocks across 1400 cities have been mapped and can be seen on Google maps. The Google toilet locator also provides an option for citizens to provide their feedback after using these toilets.
Everyone should understand that cleanliness is not only the responsibility of the sanitation worker or the local government; it is the responsibility of every citizen of the country
The government officers, NGOs and the local communities should start cleanliness programmes in their vicinity and motivate people to take part in it
The Government should also fix responsibility on the people and punish them, if they misbehave.
Recently in Jarandi village of Maharashtra, the Gram Panchayat decided to cancel ration cards of those families whose members were caught defecating in the open.
Similarly, a man from Indore was made to collect garbage along with sanitation workers as a punishment for defecating in the open
Many people pay attention to personal hygiene but remain apathetic to public and community cleanliness. Change in this mentality is important for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
It is said that, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”, one can assure that the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan can really bring godliness all over the country, if it is followed by the people of India in an effective manner. Hope that ‘Swachh Paani Mission’ is also made possible by 2024 to provide safe drinking water for all
A healthy country and a healthy society wants its citizens to be healthy and clean
Mahatma Gandhi never compromised on cleanliness. He gave us freedom. We can give ourselves a ‘Clean India’

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