Swachh Bharat The Concept

Mahatma Gandhi said Sanitation is more important than

independence.
He made cleanliness and sanitation an integral part of the
Gandhian way of living. His dream was total sanitation for
all.
The concept of Swachh Bharat is to pave access for every
person to:(a) Sanitation facilities including Toilets, Solid and
Liquid Waste Disposal Systems, village cleanliness
and
(b)Safe and adequate drinking water supply.
We have to achieve this by 2019 as a befitting tribute to
Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th. Birth
Anniversary.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a campaign initiated by the PM of India Sri

Narendrabhai Modi on Gandhi Jayanti last year. On 15 August 2014, Prime
Minister Shri Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address emphasised
on the importance of cleanliness. Following the address, on 2 October
2014, the 145th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, he launched the
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or Clean India Mission. He called on the people to
get involved in keeping their surroundings clean.
Prime Minister Shri Modi in his message to the people on 25 September
2014 said, I am sure you have heard time and again that cleanliness is next
to godliness. On 2 October we are launching Swachh Bharat Mission, a
massive mass movement, that seeks to create a clean India. Now the time
has come to devote ourselves towards Swachchhata (cleanliness) of our
motherland.
In heeding to the call, Dr M.A. Sikandar, Director, NBT India initiated a
drive to clean the premises of NBT and its neighbourhood from 26
September 2014. In his address to the employees of the Trust, Dr Sikandar
said that Cleanliness is a good habit and we must make every effort to
support the Swachh Bharat Mission. Keep yourself clean; your
neighbourhood clean; and inculcate the habit of cleanliness in children.
Every employee should give an hour a week to cleanliness.
Later the Director and the employees of the Trust took a pledge in support
of the Mission to devote 100 hours every year to cleaning. Following
which, all the employees of the Trust at headquarters as well as its regional
offices and Book Promotion Centres across the country, took to cleaning
the premises of the Trust as well as the neighbourhood areas.

The underlying reason for this campaign is to fulfil the vision of Mahatma
Gandhi for a clean India. The PM wants India to be clean in every way be
it home, campus, streets and govt offices not only from dirt but also from
corruption.
Mahatma Gandhi called upon the people to make India clean. But,
unfortunately, India has remained filthy and uninhabitable even after 67
years of Independence. The PM urges people to materialize the dream of
the Father of the Nation. He says : Let us fulfil Mahatma Gandhi`s vision
of Clean India Swachh Bharat. He also says : Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan
should be approached with a bipartisan spirit of patriotism. On Gandhi
Jayanti, the PM took up a broom and initiated the campaign at Valmiki
Basti. Then he made surprise visit to Mandir Marg Police Station at Delhi.
Film actor Amir Khan joined the PM in his campaign at Rajpath. Modiji
wants to involve the youth of the nation in this cleanliness drive. So he
wants to use social media for awareness.
He has definite plans for sanitations at schools too. He says in one of his
speech : all schools in the country should have toilets with separate
toilets for girls. Only then our daughters will not be compelled to leave
schools midway. As a part of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the concept of
Swachh Vidyalaya is also brought out. Swachh Vidyalaya is the national
campaign driving Clean India: Clean Schools.
A key feature of the campaign is to ensure that every school in India has a
set of functioning and well maintained water, sanitation and hygiene
facilities. Water, sanitation and hygiene in schools refers to a combination
of technical and human development components that are necessary to
produce a healthy school environment and to develop or support
appropriate health and hygiene behaviours. The technical components
include drinking water, hand washing, toilet and soap facilities in the school

compound for use by children and teachers. It improves childrens health,

school enrolment, attendance and retention and paves the way for new
generation of healthy children.
The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a welcome step indeed. It is said that
cleanliness is godliness. For a healthy society we require healthy people.
The habit of cleanliness will make a healthy nation.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a Swachh Bharat mission led by the government
of India to make India a clean India. This campaign was launched officially
by the government of India on 145th birthday anniversary of the great
person, Mahatma Gandhi on 2nd of October, 2014. It was launched at the
Rajghat, New Delhi (cremation of Mahatma Gandhi).
To give a fillip to the Total Sanitation Campaign, effective June 2003 the
government launched an incentive scheme in the form of an award for total
sanitation coverage, maintenance of a clean environment and open
defecation-free panchayat villages, blocks and districts called Nirmal Gram
Puraskar.
The objectives of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan include the following :

Construct individual, cluster and community toilets.

Eliminate or reduce open defecation. Open defecation is one of the

main causes of deaths of thousands of children each year.

Construct latrines and work towards establishing an accountable

mechanism of monitoring latrine use.

Create Public awareness about the drawbacks of open defecation and

promotion of latrine use.

Recruit dedicated ground staff to bring about behavioural change and

promotion of latrine use.

Change peoples mindset towards proper sanitation use.

Keep villages clean.Ensure solid and liquid waste management

through gram panchayats.

Lay water pipelines in all villages, ensuring water supply to all

households by 2019.
As many as nine public figures: Mridula Sinha, Sachin Tendulkar, Baba
Ramdev, Shashi Tharoor, Anil Ambani, Kamal Hasan, Salman Khan,
Priyanka Chopra and Team Tarak Mehta ka Oolta Chashma have been
invited by the PM to make a contribution towards Swachh Bharat, share the
same on social media, and invite nine other people to do the same, hence
forming a chain.
It is a politics free campaign and inspired by the patriotism. It is launched
as a responsibility of the each and every Indian citizen to make this country
a Swachh country. This campaign has initiated people globally towards the
cleanliness. Teachers and students of the school are joining this Clean
India Campaign very actively with great fervour and joy.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Prospects and Challenges

Provisioning of drinking water and sanitation services are recognised as the
responsibility of the states under the Constitution of India. However, Union
Government programmes on sanitation have played a significant role in
increasing access to sanitation facilities, especially in rural areas where the
dependence on public provisioning of essential services is relatively higher
than that in urban areas. The introduction of the Central Rural Sanitation
Programme in 1986 and its revamping as Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)
in 1999, helped increase the coverage of household toilets in rural areas
from 1% in 1981 (Census 1981) to 22% in 2001 (Census 2001) and 32.7%
in 2011 (Census 2011). Subsequently, the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) in
2012, which succeeded TSC, aimed to accelerate sanitation coverage in
rural areas to achieve the vision of Nirmal Bharat by 2022 with all Village
Panchayats in the country attaining Nirmal status.
The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, launched on 2nd of October this year, marks
the beginning of the largest programme on sanitation by the Government in
India till date. The programme aims to ensure access to sanitation facilities
(including toilets, solid and liquid waste disposal systems and village
cleanliness) and safe and adequate drinking water supply to every person
by 2019, three years ahead of the deadline set by NBA (though NBA
focused only on sanitation with the National Rural Drinking Water
Programme covering drinking water in rural areas). Though the detailed
guidelines for the programme are yet to be issued, a preliminary assessment
of the programme can be made from the information available in the public
domain.
Under the new programme, NBA will be re-structured into Swachh Bharat
Mission with two sub-Missions - Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) and
Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban). The two missions will fall under the

Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (for Rural) and the Union
Ministry of Urban Development (for Urban). The unit costs for toilets will
be enhanced for Individual Household Latrines (IHHLs) (from Rs. 10,000
to Rs. 12,000), school toilets (from Rs. 35,000 to Rs. 54,000), anganwadi
toilets (from Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 20,000) and Community Sanitary Complexes
(CSCs) (from Rs.2,00,000 to Rs.6,00,000). Given that one of the major
impediments in increasing the coverage of toilets at a satisfactory pace has
been the lack of funds, the proposed investment of Rs. 1.34 lakh crore for
rural areas and Rs. 62,009 crore for urban areas over the next five years, as
has been reported in the media recently, is likely to go a long way in
achieving the goals set by the programme (though this overall investment is
not expected to be made entirely by the government, with private sector
players contributing some resources). However, it is also important to note
that while the estimates of the total magnitude of funds for sanitation have
increased substantially, the unit costs for IHHLs, the key component of
rural sanitation programmes has witnessed a marginal increase. The
increase in the unit costs of IHHLs (i.e. of Rs.2,000) has been done to
provide for water availability, including for storing, hand washing and
cleaning of toilets.
Funding for these new initiatives will be through budgetary allocations,
contributions to the Swachh Bharat Kosh and through commitments under
Corporate Social responsibility (CSR). Another feature of the proposed
programme is the setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle within the
Mission as a Company under the Companys Act. It will raise funds from
Government and non-Government sources, including CSR funds and
interalia also implement CSR projects. Public Private Partnerships (PPP)
are also envisaged for construction of CSCs. It is likely that budgetary
allocations for the programme will be made in the current financial year
itself.
A significant departure from the previous programme, NBA, is the delinking of rural sanitation with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Though this proposal is still

under consideration, it would be a welcome measure as its acceptance is

likely to address the problem of delayed availability of a part of the funds
(for construction of IHHLs) from MGNREGA. Additionally, the under the
new programme, it is proposed to replace Nirmal Gram Puraskar with
Swachh Bharat Puraskar with a widened focus to include block and district
level benchmarks for coverage. In recognition of the need to strengthen
monitoring mechanism, the programme will monitor both outputs
(construction) and outcomes (usage). Another welcome measure is the
proposed flexibility to States with regard to use of funds by allowing
interchangeability of funds between drinking water and sanitation so as to
ensure that funds do not lie idle and targets are not starved of funds in either
of the two sectors.
However, it would also be pertinent to reflect on some of the challenges
that may hinder effective implementation of the programme and attainment
of the goals envisaged. The reduction in the budget of the Information
Education and Communication (IEC) component (from 15 percent to 8
percent), which is critical to trigger behavioral change to ensure usage of
toilets, is a matter of concern. Additionally, the lack of any resources for
maintenance of school toilets and community sanitary complexes could
result in rapid deterioration and subsequent non-usage of these over time,
severely impacting the sustainability of the programme.
Another serious concern that has been recognised but not fully addressed in
the programme pertains to the shortage of staff for implementation of both
water and sanitation programmes. The launch of the Swachh Bharat
Abhiyan also provides an opportunity to address some concerns from the
perspective of social inclusion and equity. An overarching concern in this
regard is the reliance on PPP, which could constrain the ability of the
government to address the already existing inequities based on caste, class
and gender in both rural water and sanitation. In fact, it has been argued
that the experience of PPP in sectors such as drinking water has often raised
concerns, particularly for the vulnerable and disadvantaged sections of the
population.

While the draft Action Plan of the Ministry of Drinking Water and
Sanitation explicitly recognizes some critical gender concerns with regard
to sanitation, the need for enclosed bathing spaces within homes remains
unaddressed, which has been a threat to the privacy and security for
women. Moreover, the construction of Community Sanitary Complexes
being contingent on a mandatory ten percent community contribution and
the willingness of the Gram Panchayat to take the responsibility of
ownership and a sustainable operation and maintenance system could prove
to be yet another hurdle in achieving the goals of this mission in the long
run. Lower priority to public toilets is undesirable from a gender
perspective. Likewise, the proposed unit costs for construction of toilets,
especially household toilets, would be inadequate for making them
accessible to persons with disabilities; features such as grab bars and ramps
require significantly higher unit costs than what has been provided under
Swachch Bharat Abhiyan.
The high degree of policy priority accorded to sanitation with the
introduction of Swachch Bharat Abhiyan could go a long way in achieving
an open defecation free India in the coming years. A number of concerns
with the proposed programme do exist, but these can be addressed in due
course. It is hoped that the concerned stakeholders including the various
line ministries and states would own the programme to ensure its successful
implementation.
Current Status
Building toilets in rural India was one of the major promises Prime Minister
Narendra Modi made during his speech from the Red Fort ramparts in his
first Independence Day address last year.
The government has since moved with alacrity, claiming to have
constructed around 80 lakh countryside toilets across India under Modis
ambitious Swachh Bharat mission.
But a random assessment of the campaign by Mail Today shows that the
ambitious move is plagued by crippling problems that threaten to offset the
hopes among large swathes of population that seek hygienic living.

To gauge the programmes success rate, Union Ministry of Drinking Water

and Sanitation the nodal agency for rural mission for the cleanliness
campaign engaged the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO)
for an impact assessment study.
Sources in the ministry said that one of the most common complaints
coming from states like Uttar Pradesh (UP) was the lack of acceptability
and proper usage of the toilets built in remote rural areas.
Though several toilets have been built in this area, villagers still prefer
going out into fields to attend natures call. At a few places, villagers have
dumped the toilets under piles of husk. In some villages where they have
constructed toilets, there is no proper waste managementso they are
frustrated with the idea, said an official in UP government, based in
Badaun district, on the condition of anonymity.
A villager in Bareilly district of UP admitted that he felt suffocated inside
an enclosed toilet and couldnt bring himself to excrete until he went to an
open field.
At least 55 per cent of the Indian population doesnt have access to toilets.
If we go to villages randomly, we will find one or the other problem. The
idea of the survey is to get the actual picture of the program. This is a thirdparty survey targeted at genuine results.
"The survey will be completed in a month. We have tried to cover almost
all aspects of the idea of sanitation. Surveyors are looking at everything:
solid and liquid waste management, awareness regarding toilet usage, water
storage, hand washing practices and acceptability of the total idea of
sanitation, said Saraswati Prasad, joint secretary, ministry of drinking
water and sanitation, Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G) division.
Focusing on the end result qualities, certain features were introduced to
expedite rural sanitation.
One of the changes introduced was increasing the incentive amount for an
individuals toilet from Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000.
This hike was made keeping in mind that hygiene is an important factor and
promotion of washing hands at critical times, such as after defecation, was
essential to prevent faeco-oral transmission.

Therefore, it was advised that facilities for water storage, hand washing and
cleaning of toilets may be created or strengthened alongside the
construction of a toilet.
We have constructed around 80 lakh toilets under the combined Nirmal
Bharat Abhiyan, MNREGA and SBM-G programmes. One of the
challenges we have been facing is requests from some states for
enhancement of unit cost of Individual Household Latrines (IHHLs) and
community toilets for various reasons, such as adopting different
technological options for different geographical locations, Prasad added.
The SBM-G guidelines stipulate only an inceptive amount to be provided
to an eligible person. It doesnt aim to provide the full cost of a toilet,
which may be higher or lower than the incentive amount.
"The reason is that sanitation is primarily a behavioural issue, to be
undertaken by people themselves for their own good. The role of
government is only to facilitate this positive change by providing incentives
and assisting people. The SBM-G has a clear focus on behavioural change,
Prasad added.
Officials said the realisation by a person or community of the need to stop
open defecation, and therefore take steps to construct and use toilets, is
more important than a supply-driven approach.
The Centre has also said that state governments have the flexibility to
provide higher incentive for household toilets constructed by sources other
than SBM-G. The construction of toilets is a major focal area for the
Swachh Bharat programme, which aims to make India open defecationfree by 2019. It aims at constructing 12 crore toilets in rural India by
October 2019 at a projected cost of Rs 1.96 lakh crore.