After becoming ODF, several villages have witnessed a reduction in deaths due to diarrhoea. (Photo credit: pib.gov.in)
New Delhi: Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is one of the most landmark steps the Narendra Modi government took after coming to power in 2014. Also known as the Swachh Bharat Mission, PM Modi launched the programme across the country on October 2, 2014. The campaign aimed to achieve the vision of a ‘Clean India’ by October 2, 2019, which was the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
The importance of sanitation in our life
Sanitation is the basic need of human beings. There is historical evidence in India’s ancient civilisation regarding scientific methods used in toilet construction and waste management. But over the centuries, the importance of cleanliness slowly vanished from India’s social system.
Till 2014, the sanitation coverage of India was as low as 39 per cent. Around 55 crore people in rural areas were without a toilet facility before 2014, as per government data. This was severely affecting the health and dignity of people in rural areas, especially women and children.
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The rural household toilet coverage
As per reports, in 1981, the rural household toilet coverage in India was 1 per cent. It increased to 11 per cent in 1991. In 2001, it became 22 per cent and in 2011, it became 32.7 per cent. From 2013 to 2014, 38.4 per cent of India’s rural households had toilets.
As per the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, 43.8 per cent of India’s rural households had access to toilets in 2014-15. In 2019-20, it shot up to 100 per cent. In March 2020, the department launched Phase II of SBM-Gramin which will focus on ODF Plus. The tenure of its implementation was from 2020-21 to 2024-25 with an outlay of Rs 1.41 lakh crore. ODF Plus includes sustaining the status of ODF (Open Defecation Free) and solid and liquid waste management. Its main aim was to ensure that every Gram Panchayat has effective solid and liquid waste management.
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Since 2014, the Indian government has taken massive strides to reach its ODF targets. By January 2020, in 36 states and Union Territories, 706 districts and over 603,175 villages were declared to have achieved ODF status.
The stories that highlight the success
In Chhattisgarh’s Kabirdham district, around 1.38 lakh children belonging to 1700 schools wrote to their parents to build toilets in their homes. The demand inspired the administration of Kabirdham to become an ODF district in a very short period. In April 2022, it was reported by the government that Karnataka’s Gadag district was constructing pink toilets in 32 gram panchayats across the district.
Under the Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen (SBM-G), the washrooms of adolescent girls and women not only have adequate water supply, lighting, a room to change and other amenities but also have an incinerator which is used for safe disposal of sanitary pads and menstrual waste.
The international recognition
In 2021, UNICEF said that in India, the number of people not having a toilet had gone down from 550 million to 50 million. Two years before that, in 2019, the World Bank stated that 96 per of Indians have toilets. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), due to the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission, 180,000 diarrhoeal deaths were averted in rural India.
The impact of the mission
Under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin), over 10.28 crore toilets were constructed across 36 states/UTs. During five years, 603,175 villages were declared ODF. More than 30 crore people participated in the behaviour change campaigns under the world’s largest behaviour programme.
Around 5.4 crore school children participated in the ‘Swachh Sankalp Se Swachh Siddhi’ under Swachhata Pakhwada. To spread awareness on sanitation and disseminate the inspiration journey of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen), a permanent AudioVisual Experiential centre, Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra (RSK) was set up in New Delhi which was inaugurated on August 8, 2020.
After becoming ODF, several villages have witnessed a reduction in deaths due to diarrhoea, malaria especially in children, still births and newborns thereby improving child health and nutrition.
Who are Swachhagrahis?
Those who volunteer for the Swachh Bharat Mission are called Swachhagrahi. It is symbolic of Mahatma Gandhi’s thoughts and ideals.
The challenges in the mission
The non-usage of toilets and the habit of open defecation has been a centuries-old habit in India. To ensure the success of the Swachh Bharat Mission, not only an effective and creative behaviour change model was designed but was also implemented on a massive scale. It was an incredible challenge across speed, scale, stigma and sustainability.
The next phase of the mission
In February 2021, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her Budget speech the imminent launch of Urban Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0. It aimed to focus on waste-water treatment, sludge management, segregating the garbage at the source, reducing the usage of single-use plastics and controlling air pollution due to garbage accumulation at a place. On October 1, 2021, PM Modi launched SBM-Urban 2.0 with the mission to make all the cities in India ‘Garbage Free’.
The top-performing states and government initiatives
The states which have performed the best when it comes to the percentage of ODF Plus villages are Telangana (100 per cent), Karnataka (99.5 per cent), Tamil Nadu (97.8 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (95.2 per cent). Among the small states, Goa with 95.3 per cent and Sikkim with 69.2 per cent have performed remarkably well.
When it comes to the Union Territories, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman Diu have villages which are 100 per cent ODF Plus Model. As of now in India, 1,65,048 villages have solid waste management systems, and 2,39,063 villages have liquid waste management systems. There are 4,57,060 villages that have minimal stagnant water while 4,67,384 villages have minimal litter. Under Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen Phase II, 50 per cent of the total villages in India are now ODF Plus.
To manage the grey water, which is the wastewater produced by our daily household chores like cooking, cleaning and bathing, in villages that lacked proper drainage systems, people were encouraged to construct soak pits/leach pits or magic pits at household and community level. For this, the Sujlam campaign was launched and almost 22 lakh soak pits were made to manage the waste of grey water. After that, the government launched Sujalam 3.0. The government has also launched GOBARdhan, which means Galvanising Organic Bio-Agro Resources-dhan, to ensure the recovery of biodegradable waste and the conversion of that waste into resources which will create clean and green villages.
