Sanitation coverage in rural India under Swachh Bharat rises to 85%

• Sanitation coverage in rural India, under the Swachh Bharat Mission, has now risen to 85%. As per the data released by Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, through mobilisation of rural communities, 7.4 crore toilets were built across rural India, and as an outcome, over 3.8 lakh villages and 391 districts were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF).

About Swachh Bharat Mission- Gramin:

• The core intent of the Swachh Bharat Mission is to make India open defecation free by 2019. Keeping public spaces clean, constructing and maintaining both individual and community toilets are all part of the ‘Swachh’ agenda.
• Though the Swachh Bharat Mission found mention in the Prime Minister’s Independence Day speech, it was formally inaugurated with much fanfare on October 2, 2014, Mahatma Gandhi’s 145th Birth anniversary.
• The Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) is the successor of the erstwhile Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA). The aim of the NBA, earlier known as the Total Sanitation Campaign, was to make India open defecation free by 2017.
• Components of Swachh Bharat
• The Swachh Bharat Mission is split into two sub-Missions - Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) and Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban). While the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation is the nodal agency for the rural mission, the Ministry of Urban Development will take care of the budgetary concerns of the urban component.
• Keeping the needs of the rural populace in mind, 1.34 lakh crore rupees has been earmarked for the rural mission, compared to the Rs. 62,009 crore budget for the urban mission.
• Apart from this, the mission will also be supported through the Swachh Bharat Kosh while is set up to channelize philanthropic contributions for the cause, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contributions and funding from other multilateral sources.
• Swachh Bharat Mission for Urban Areas: The focus is on establishing close to 2.6 lakh individual toilets and 2.5 lakh community toilets across 4,401 towns and cities in India. Eradicating manual scavenging and improved municipal solid waste management is part of the agenda.
• Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin: Gram Panchayats and Zilla Parishads will work on war footing to make sure that all households in all villages have functional water supply and toilet facilities. Productive use of night soil as bio-fertilizers is also on the cards.

Analysis:

• From the Central Rural Sanitation Programme of the 80’s to the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan of the previous UPA regime, sanitation and water supply schemes have managed to capture and hold the attention of the governments, both at the centre and the state level. Despite being a national obsession, most schemes have come and gone with very little to show on the ground.
• Census 2011 revealed that only 30.7% of households in rural areas had access to toilets. A 2008 UNICEF study sets the number even lower at a mere 21%. India tops the list of countries with the maximum number of people defecating out in the open.
• The TSC and NBA’s central goal was to improve the toilet coverage in the country. In the past decade, the increase in toilet coverage across India has just been 1% per year.

By: Vishal