To accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and to put focus on sanitation, the Prime Minister of India had launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on 2nd October 2014. The mission was implemented as nation-wide campaign/Janandolan which aimed at eliminating open defecation in rural areas during the period 2014 to 2019 through mass scale behavior change, construction of household-owned and community-owned toilets and establishing mechanisms for monitoring toilet construction and usage.

Under the mission, all villages, Gram Panchayats, Districts, States and Union Territories in India declared themselves "open-defecation free" (ODF) by 2 October 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, by constructing over 100 million toilets in rural India. To ensure that the open defecation free behaviours are sustained, no one is left behind, and that solid and liquid waste management facilities are accessible, the Mission is moving towards the next Phase II of SBMG i.e ODF-Plus. ODF Plus activities under Phase II of Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) will reinforce ODF behaviours and focus on providing interventions for safe management of solid and liquid waste in villages.

 

Functions of the Swachh Bharat Division

• To serve as the secretariat for the Swachh Bharat Mission.

• Assistance in formulation of strategies related to Swachh Bharat Mission;

• Monitoring of projects taken up in partnership with various divisions of the MoT;

• Inspection of Projects being implemented;

• Interaction with the other Ministries, States/UTs and the stakeholders through appropriate means including meetings, conferences and workshops to take the initiative forward through State agencies.

• Attend parliamentary matters.

• To update Swachh Bharat Abhiyan / Swachhta Samiksha / Swachhta Action plan (SAP) / e-Samiksha / CPGRAMS website / portal.

 

Objectives of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan:

• Construction of individual, cluster and community toilets.
• To eliminate or reduce open defecation. Open defecation is one of the main causes of deaths of thousands of children each year.
• Not only latrine construction, the Swachh Bharat Mission will also make an initiative of establishing an accountable mechanism of monitoring latrine use.
• Public awareness will also be provided about the drawbacks of open defecation and promotion of latrine use.
• Proper, dedicated ground staff will be recruited to bring about behavioural change and promotion of latrine use.
• For proper sanitation use, the mission will aim at changing people’s attitudes, mindsets and behaviours.
• Villages to be kept clean with Solid and Liquid Waste Management.
• Solid and liquid waste management through gram panchayats.
• To lay water pipelines in all villages, ensuring water supply to all households by 2019.
• To make India Open Defecation Free (ODF) India by 2019, by providing access to toilet facilities to all.
• To provide toilets, separately for Boys and Girls in all schools by 15.8.2015.
• To provide toilets to all Anganwadis
• Mahatma Gandhi dreamt of an India which was not only free but also clean and developed.
• Mahatma Gandhi secured freedom for mother India.
• Now it is our duty to serve mother India by keeping the country neat and clean.
• I take this pledge that I will remain committed towards cleanliness and devote time for this.
• I will devote 100 hours per year that is two hours per week to voluntary work for cleanliness.
• I will neither litter nor let others litter.
• I will initiate the quest for cleanliness with myself, my family, my locality, my village and my work place.
• I believe that the countries of the world that appear clean are so because their citizens do not indulge in littering nor do they allow it to happen.
• With this firm belief, I will propagate the message of Swachh Bharat Mission in villages and towns.
• I will encourage 100 other persons to take this pledge which I am taking today.
• I will endeavor to make them devote their 100 hours for cleanliness.
• I am confident that every step I take towards cleanliness will help in making my country clean.

 

Swachh Bharat Mission: Urban Areas

The mission aims to cover 1.04 crore households, provide 2.5 lakh community toilets, 2.6 lakh public toilets, and a solid waste management facility in each town. Under the programme, community toilets will be built in residential areas where it is difficult to construct individual household toilets. Public toilets will also be constructed in designated locations such as tourist places, markets, bus stations, railway stations, etc. The programme will be implemented over a five-year period in 4,401 towns. Of the Rs 62,009 crore likely to be spent on the programme, the Centre will pitch in Rs 14,623 crore. Of the Centre’s share of Rs 14,623 crore, Rs 7,366 crore will be spent on solid waste management, Rs 4,165 crore on individual household toilets, Rs 1,828 crore on public awareness and Rs 655 crore on community toilets.

   

 Swachh Bharat Mission: Gramin Areas

• The Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan has been restructured into the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin). The mission aims to make India an open defecation free country in Five Years. Under the mission, One lakh thirty four thousand crore rupees will be spent for construction of about 11 crore 11 lakh toilets in the country. Technology will be used on a large scale to convert waste into wealth in rural India in the forms of bio-fertilizer and different forms of energy. The mission is to be executed on war footing with the involvement of every gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and Zila Parishad in the country, besides roping in large sections of rural population and school teachers and students in this endeavor.
•   As part of the mission, for rural households, the provision for unit cost of individual household latrine has been increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 so as to provide for water availability,      including for storing, hand-washing and cleaning of toilets. Central share for such latrines will be Rs 9,000 while state share will be Rs 3,000. For North Eastern states, Jammu & Kashmir and  special category states, the Central share will be 10,800 and the state share Rs 1,200. Additional contributions from other sources will be permitted.

 

Objectives of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin)

• Bring about an improvement in the general quality of life in the rural areas.
• Accelerate sanitation coverage in rural areas to achieve the vision of Swachh Bharat by 2019 with all Gram Panchayats in the country attaining Nirmal status.
• Motivate communities and Panchayati Raj Institutions promoting sustainable sanitation facilities through awareness creation and health education.
• Encourage cost effective and appropriate technologies for ecologically safe and sustainable sanitation.
• Develop community managed environmental sanitation systems focusing on solid & liquid waste management for overall cleanliness in the rural areas.

 

  Impact of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

• The relationship between cleanliness and better health has been propagated since the inception of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The transition of a cleaner India to a healthier India has been advocated by numerous public figures, from the Prime Minister to film actors and sportsmen. In 1990, deaths due to unsafe water and sanitation consisted of 13 per cent of total deaths across the country. BY 2016, the percentage had come down to 5 per cent. Though the decrease is significant, it is still quite high. The states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have sanitation coverage of 80 per cent and above, signaling stark changes in their sanitation figures.

• While no national or state level survey has yet been conducted on the overall impact of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in states, several organisations have recorded their observations across states in studying the impact of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on health and its improvement. As per data from Global Health Observatory, child diarrhoea deaths in India decreased from 1,21,889 in 2014 to 1,17,285 in 2015 to 1,02,813 in 2016. In the two years since Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was launched, the percentage of under-five children dying from diarrhoea came down from 13% to 9%.