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SWACHH BHARAT MISSION
The Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) was launched on 15 August 2014 to wage a war against filth and open defecation, and achieve a clean and open defecation free India as Mahatma Gandhi had dreamed of, by October 2, 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhiji. With SBM the discussion on sanitation was removed from the closet and put in the forefront of national policy and development.
Why the need for a dedicated mission on cleanliness? • The age old practice of open defecation causes over 1 lakh preventable child deaths every year through diarrhoeal infections. • A study by the World Bank estimates that nearly 40 per cent of India’s children are stunted, primarily because of lack of sanitation. • Poor sanitation practices have an adverse impact on their economic potential, and is estimated to cost India over 6 per cent of our GDP. • Women’s safety and dignity are often comprised due to open defecation. • A 21st century India on the path to becoming a global economic super power should have no place for filth and open defecation as it spoils the image as well as Tourism potential of our country.
How is SBM a unique mission? SBM is not the first mission on cleanliness that India has undertaken as we have had missions like Total Sanitation Campaign, Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan etc. Neither is India the only country in the world to have a dedicated mission on cleanliness. However, there are certain aspects of SBM that make it unique or different from all other similar initiatives. • The other missions have solely focused on building infrastructure like toilets etc. without realising that they are not utilised due to attitude and behavioural issues. The SBM along with creating desired infrastructure also focuses on changing habits and behaviour towards promoting the usage of that infrastructure by the people. It does this through- o Behavior change through Information, Education and Communication (IEC), print and electronic media based campaigns. o Children, women, senior citizens and specially-abled citizens are being recognised and felicitated as Swachhta Champions for their contributions towards the fight against open defecation. This acts as a motivational tool for others too. o Lakhs of sanitation motivators called 'Swachhagrahis' are being trained in community approaches to sanitation. They work under an incentive-based system at village level to explain the importance of sanitation and trigger behaviour change by stimulating community-level demand for toilets. Currently there are over 150,000 Swachhagrahis across the country and this number is rapidly increasing. The SBM aims to have at least one Swachhagrahi per village in India. o Bollywood stars and cricketers are also getting involved. Superstar Amitabh Bachchan is leading a “Darwaza Bandh” (on open defecation) campaign on TV, radio and outdoor hoardings across the country. Akshay Kumar has made a blockbuster Bollywood movie on the subject of open defecation — Toilet Ek Prem Katha. • Another difference compared to other similar missions is shifting the focus from outputs (number of toilets built) to outcomes (ODF villages). Also, the verification of ODF status in a time bound and comprehensive manner is unique to SBM. The verification is done at District and State level and separately by the MDWS at national level. All these claims are cross verified by an independent third party like QCI (Quality Council of India). Incentive mechanisms are being developed for sustaining ODF, including prioritizing ODF villages for centrally sponsored schemes like piped water supply. The MDWS has also issued sustainability guidelines to states and provided a financial incentive framework to them for sustaining the ODF. Districts are also being ranked under Swachhta Darpan based on their performance, sustainability and transparency on SBM-G, spurring healthy competition between districts. • Another very important differentiator between the SBM and previous sanitation programs is the inclusive focus cleanliness through management of solid and liquid waste. In fact, waste is now being viewed as a resource, and the name has been re-christened to Solid and Liquid Resource Management (SLRM). • Another distinguishing feature of SBM is that cleanliness and sanitation is not being seen as the responsibility of one particular Ministry or department alone but rather as business of one and all to be carried out through participative approach. o Inclusive initiatives like Swachhta Action Plans have successfully gotten all Ministries and Departments of the Government of India to pledge to take up Swachhta and sanitation related activities in their respective sectors, and have pledged a total of Rs. 12,000 crores for FY 17-18 from their existing budgets for these tasks. o Even the private sector has been inspired to contribute to the SBM, not only by contributing money under CSR, but also leveraging their human and managerial resources to help in direct implementation of SBM. One of the biggest contributions has come from the Tata Trusts who have hired and are sponsoring 60 young professionals to work in each district of India with the district administration, tasked singularly with taking their district towards ODF and good Solid Waste Management. These professionals, called the Zila Swachh Bharat Preraks, have infused the exuberance of youth into the implementation of the SBM-G and have been thoroughly appreciated by all State governments. o The Swachhta Hi Seva: An Unprecedented Nationwide Campaign on Swachhta Under the campaign Swachhta Hi Seva, there was mobilisation of people from all walks of life to undertake shramdaan (voluntary labour) for cleanliness and construction of toilets and to make their environments free from open defecation. The objective of the campaign was to mobilise people and reinforce the “Jan Aandolan” for sanitation. • Another distinguishing feature of SBM is extensive use of technology to realise the targets of sanitation and cleanliness. This is being done through several ways o The first of these is the Swachhathon — the Swachh Bharat Hackathon which invites innovative technology based solutions to some of the most challenging questions being faced by SBM o Technology is also being leveraged to find solutions to issues like- measuring success and failures of mission in a non intrusive manner, bringing about behavioural change, designing toilets in difficult terrains, safe disposal of waste etc.
Successes of SBM • Rural sanitation coverage has gone up from 39 per cent at the start of the mission to the current figure of 68 per cent. • Over 230 million people in rural India have stopped defecating in the open • 193 districts and about 235,000 villages across the country have been declared as open defecation free (ODF). • Five States — Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Haryana and Uttarakhand have become ODF. • One of the biggest achievements has been that all the 4000+ villages on the banks of the holy Ganga have become ODF!
By: Anupama Sharma ProfileResourcesReport error
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