GP INDIVIDUAL REPORT
Changing Communities
How is Swachh Bharat Mission changing communities in India?
Swachh Bharat Campaign: This was launched by Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi on 2nd of October, 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi with an aim to make India clean. The campaign envisages to provide sanitation facilities to every family, including toilets, solid and liquid waste disposal systems, village and city cleanliness, and safe and adequate drinking water supply by 2nd October, 2019. It will be a befitting tribute to the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, on his 150th birth anniversary. It is significant that the Prime Minister of our country himself is taking very proactive role to ensure that the campaign is a success. At Rajghat he started the campaign by cleaning the street himself.
Although, the campaign is being implemented and supported by the government of India the participation of the individuals is voluntary and not compulsory. Several non-government organizations (NGO’s) are also actively involved in this campaign.
The Swachh Bharat Mission, with its focus on behavioral change, is becoming a community movement, President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee recently said: “The Swachh Bharat Mission is becoming a community movement to herald an overall change in the quality of life and well-being of the people, particularly the poor.”
“My government aims to create a ‘Shikshit, Swasth, Swachh’, an educated, healthy and clean India. In a reflection of how the spirit of Swachh Bharat has manifested in our primary schools, over 4,17,000 functional toilets for girls and boys have been constructed,” he added.
In his address, the president also said that the government’s cleanliness mission extended to the railways and it strived to phase out open discharge of sewage from trains and to do away with manual scavenging.
“My government has initiated several ambitious measures for improving sanitation standards at railway stations and in trains. ‘Samman’ guides us in our endeavor to phase out the open discharge of sewage from trains and combat manual scavenging. All new coaches are now being fitted
with bio-toilets,” Mukherjee said.
National perspective
India is one the world’s fastest growing economies. While no one can doubt its increasing influence on the world stage, it also faces the uncomfortable truth that many people still struggle with life on the poverty line. The paradox is that India is a technological leader and home to titans of industry, yet millions still live in the most basic conditions with inadequate sanitation and healthcare.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not shied away from this reality. In October 2014, he launched Swachh Bharat, the “Clean India” campaign. At that time, virtually every second person had to defecate in the open, more people had a mobile phone than a toilet and every third person was drinking unsafe water. This could be no longer be tolerated.
To say that the “Clean India” campaign was highly ambitious would be an understatement. Never before had a movement been created with the potential to boost the health and welfare of so many people, so quickly. The Prime Minister urged India’s 1.25 billion people to turn cleanliness into a social movement. He galvanized the masses and created an ambition so simple it could not be ignored: each household would have a toilet. This ambition, both humble and grand, would shape the growth and prosperity of the nation for generations to come.
The Indian Government, like many around the world, has recognized that health is a key determinant of economic growth in the 21st century. Better health leads to higher income, which in turn leads to better health. Like education, health is a fundamental component of human capital.
The Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) has galvanized a nation around a single cause like never before – to “Clean India”. The campaign has made significant progress certifying open defecation-free villages, while raising hygiene awareness and standards. SBM has also chipped away at the prejudice against those who work in waste disposal and sanitation, with celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan and the Prime Minister himself grabbing tools to clean India.
However, there is still more work to do. For the successful completion of SBM, there is need for assessing progress to date, identifying challenges for the coming years and suggesting ways to give SBM the greatest chance of achieving its ambition.
Progress of implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission
A. Urban
Significant progress has been made under SBM-Urban in all towns and cities. Ministry of urban development provides funding to individual households to construct toilets within their premises and to Urban local bodies (ULBs)/Gram Panchayats to construct community and public toilets. Some major achievements include:
► All ULBs have begun implementing a 100% door-to-door solid waste collection system in their towns and cities.
► For FY16-17, more than 50% of the cities and towns targeted under SBM-Urban have achieved open defecation free (ODF) status.
► Two new states, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, were declared ODF for urban areas.
B. Gramin (Rural)
Ministry of drinking water and sanitation (MoDWS) has provided guidance to all villages and gram panchayats to help them achieve ODF status. Major achievements under SBM-Gramin include:
► Reduced open defecation among women in rural areas.
► Enhanced access to separate toilet facilities for boys and girls in schools.
► Private sector participation in sanitation improvement has begun.
Steps toward community involvement
▪ Community involvement in coastal cleanliness drive.
▪ Using local folk art to create awareness. (Pinguli Kalsutri [Puppet Show])
▪ Target groups included:
1.School students
2.Aanganwadi kids
3.Women
4.Senior citizens.
There is more employment generated because of swachh bharat abhiyan. There is more production of toilets and pipes for building toilets which mean that more employment for transport of these good from factories to the villages trucks are needed which would also generate more employment in truck manufacturing industry and more drivers too. The schools have been asked to teach the children to clean their environment and to change their behavior towards cleanliness. All the parents should also support this moment and teach their children how to keep your environment clean. Swachh Bharat Mission will have positive impact on India’s health care sector. The community would be clean and would have sanitary environment. Cleanliness and hygiene will shift focus towards use of clean technology i.e. non-polluting in nature. It will involve use of bio-degradable fuel and products. Any shift towards clean technology will have positive ripple effect on entire economy. New technology bring new set of employment opportunities like in the case of Information Technology.
Personal perspective
Because of us keeping our surroundings clean and tidy, we are not falling sick. We become the responsible members of the society because of ensuring cleanliness which needs to be done if we want our nation to be clean. This is spreading initiative to take up this job. The people have started doing this because they don’t want to look bad in the eyes of the society. People have started building toilets and bathing areas. Because of the continuous advertisements on T.V and radio, people have started drinking clean water by fitting in aqua guards and have started using various ways of filtration of water or have started boiling water to clean it even more when the water supplied from taps is already the cleanest water they can have. The children should start getting educated about this program because this is going to change their future.
Global perspectives
Global companies have an unique opportunity to establish or expand businesses which involves production of toiletries also this would encourage tourist inflow to the country. Example Singapore started “Keep Singapore Clean” campaign which transformed Singapore from Developing to Developed nation. Swachh Bharat Mission should do similar wonders for India. India is amongst the top 5 CO2 emitting country. So using bio-degradable fuel will help the environment get clean. This mission would not only help the country but will also help the world. Because these fuels are the ones which are causing global warming. With increased temperature’s world-wide, increase in sea levels and melting of ice from colder regions and icebergs, displacement and loss of habitat have already signaled an impending disaster if actions for preservation and normalization aren’t undertaken soon.
Advantages of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
• Can improve health’s of Indians
• Can enhance tourism
• Can prevent many diseases
• Can have a happy and healthy society
• Can attract global players to invest in India
• The upcoming generations could live a better life than us
• Can have an eco-friendly environment
• Can reduce the cost of maintenance
• New clean technology would be developed
Disadvantages of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
• Behavioral change, people might not accept this.
• people’s ignorance of health matters
• The lack of funds with people to construct toilets for their houses
• There are not many fresh and pure water supplies for the rural and urban areas.
• corruption could eat up some part of funds.