SWACHH BHARAT ABHIYAN

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or Clean India Mission is a nation-wide campaign in India for the
duration 2014 to 2019 that proposes to clean up the streets, roads and infrastructure of India's
cities, towns, urban and rural areas.
“A clean India would be the best tribute India could pay to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150 birth
anniversary in 2019,” said Shri Narendra Modi as he launched the Swachh Bharat Mission at
Rajpath in New Delhi. On 2nd October 2014, Swachh Bharat Mission was launched throughout
the length and breadth of the country as a national movement. The campaign aims to achieve
the vision of a ‘Clean India’ by 2nd October 2019.
The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is the most significant cleanliness campaign by the Government of
India. Shri Narendra Modi led a cleanliness pledge at India Gate, which about thirty lakh
government employees across the country joined. He also flagged off a walkathon at Rajpath
and surprised people by joining in not just for a token few steps, but marching with the
participants for a long way.

While leading the mass movement for cleanliness, the Prime Minister advised people to fulfil
Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of a clean and hygienic India. Shri Narendra Modi himself
inaugurated the cleanliness drive at Mandir Marg Police Station. Picking up the broom to clean
the dirt, making Swachh Bharat Abhiyan a mass movement across the nation, the Prime
Minister said people should neither litter nor let others litter. He gave the mantra of ‘Na gandagi
karenge, Na karne denge.’ Shri Narendra Modi further invited nine people to join the cleanliness
drive and requested each of them to draw nine more into the initiative.
By inviting people to participate in the drive, the Swachhta Abhiyan has transformed into a
National Movement. A sense of responsibility has been provoked among the people through the
Clean India Movement. With citizens now becoming productive participants in cleanliness
activities across the nation, the dream of a ‘Clean India’ once seen by Mahatma Gandhi has
begun to get a shape.
People from various sections of society have come forward and joined this mass movement of
cleanliness. From government officials to jawans, Bollywood actors to sportspersons,
industrialists to spiritual leaders, all have followed up for noble work. Millions of people across
the country have been day after day joining the cleanliness initiatives of the government
departments, NGOs and local community centres to make India clean. Organising frequent
cleanliness campaigns to spread awareness concerning hygiene through plays and music is
also being extensively carried out across the nation.
The campaign's official name is in Hindi and translates to "Clean India Mission" in English, its
current status is Active and it was launched by the prime minister: Narendra Modi. Its slogan is
One step towards cleanliness, location is New Delhi.

Till 2014, 600 million people, roughly 60 percent of the world’s open defecators were following
open defecation across the country. Of these, 550 million were in rural India. Beforementioned
has been improved pretty dramatically. The open defecation number has decreased to 100
million. As many as 5,20,000 villages, 530 Districts and 25 States and Union Territories are
open defecation free- ODF.

Modi said "The constant struggle of our mothers and daughters because of lack of hygienic
toilets stirred me. And I took a pledge of Swachh Bharat from the ramparts of the Red Fort. In
about 70 years of Independence, the scope of hygiene was nearly 40 per cent. It has reached
98 per cent today. More than 10 crore restrooms have been created in four-and-a-half years. 5
lakh villages in 600 districts have freed themselves from defecation in open. This has given
them a dignified life,".
LocalCircles has led its yearly Swachh Bharat survey across India and the consequences of this
year show development in the state of cleanliness in the country. The significant positive
difference is the number of citizens who believe that their neighbourhood and city have
converted cleaner due to the Swachh Bharat Mission. This figure has grown from 67 per cent
last year to 72 per cent this year.
Nevertheless, the following stage of Swachh Bharat Mission presently needs to be connected to
improving public health, decreasing plastic waste and developing local-level community
engagement. The availability of free toilets has continued almost the same, with the numbers
standing at 43 per cent this year, compared to 45 per cent last year. Civic sense additionally
gives some increase when associated to last year. The impact of the Swachh Bharat Mission on
children is repeatedly obvious in this year’s survey, but the responsiveness of the community
organisations has let down somewhat.

PM Modi said "Women safety and dignity was my prime motive behind announcing the Swachh
Bharat Mission on August 15, 2014. It was because of the efforts made by the people of India,
especially women, that the sanitation coverage in rural India, which stood at merely 39 per cent
as of October 2014 even after 67 years of India’s Independence, has today crossed the 98 per
cent mark in just over four years of the Swachh Bharat Mission,".
There has been a notable consequence of Swachh Bharat Mission at the roots level, both in the
circumstances of health parameters as well as economic indicators. A WHO study published in
August 2018 published that Swachh Bharat would have managed to maintain around 3,00,000
lives by 2019 and around 1,50,000 lives would be saved yearly consequently.

There was a slight decline in the responsiveness of the community organisations but we hope
that it increases this year and leads to a cleaner India. We wish to see more awareness among
the citizens and clearer India in 2021.