Swachh Bharat Mission - Grameen - Ministry of Jal Shakti
Posted On: 16 NOV 2021 19:32 PM
SWACHH BHARAT MISSION – GRAMEEN
(Ministry of Jal Shakti)
November 16, 2021
1. Introduction
The Swachh Bharat Mission is one of the biggest mass movements or Jan Andolan programmes of independent India. Announced on 02 October, 2014 by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) aims to change the image of rural India through mass scale behaviour change.
The Swachh Bharat Mission is a nation-wide campaign of the Government of India which aims at construction of household owned and community owned toilets, their usage and Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) thereby establishing an accountable mechanism for achieving Open Defecation Free (ODF) PlusIndia.
2. Need for Swachh Bharat Mission
- Despite the widely accepted fact related to the critical importance of sanitation and personal hygiene, the sanitation coverage of India was as low as 39 per cent till 2014.
- Around 55 Crore people in rural areas were without a toilet facility before 2014. This was severely impacting the health, and also the dignity of people in rural areas, especially of women and children.
- Open defecation was regarded as a matter of national shame, but it was an often ignored subject which was not raised in public discussion.
3. Steps Taken Previously
- The Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) was started in 1986 for rural sanitation. CRSP focused mainly on toilet construction and related funds allocation, there was no stress on behaviour change. As a result, the supply based approach did not achieve desired results.
- Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)was launched in 1999 followed by Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan in 2012. But lacking a strong behaviour change approach, these programmes also failed to make a strong impact.
4. Implementation of SBM
- The Prime Minister himself has been the Communicator-in-Chief of the Mission. Connecting sanitation with human dignity and integrity. He personally wrote to all 250,000 Gram Pradhans motivating them to help people in their villages achieve sanitation services.
- Anybody who volunteered for the Swachh Bharat Mission was called Swachhagrahi by the Prime Minister. Swachhagrahi is symbolic of Gandhi’s thoughts and ideals. Swachhagrahis added new energy and enthusiasm to the Satyagraha se Swachhagraha campaign.
- Over 12 crore school children, 6.25 lakh Swachhagrahis, 2.5 lakh sarpanches, millions of citizens and around 50 brand ambassadors were members of this team.
- Swachhagrahis regularly mobilized community members for toilet construction and its usage.
- The Prime Minister equated Swachhata with Service and launched the ‘Swachhata Hi Seva’ campaign which transformed into a Jan Andolan connecting political workers, youths, religious groups, celebrities, SHGs, and community members.
- The campaign effectively utilized modern technology for comprehensive monitoring. Each toilet in every village was mapped on Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) for a real time progress report. Every toilet was mandatorily geotagged for ensuring transparency in entire process.
- The Information, Education and Communication (IEC) division of Swachh Bharat Mission added new energy and dimension to the government dialogue. The iconic campaigns like ‘Darwaza Band’, ‘Saafnahi to Maafnahi’ mobilized and connected citizens across rural India.
5. Funds
- The government made a provision of Rs. 12,000 per toilet as financial incentive for promoting the toilet construction and its usage.
- Over the five years of SBM-G, the government allocated over Rs 1.3 lakh crore and ensured no scarcity of funds.
6. Results and Effects
Output:
- Under Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin), 10.28 crore toilets have been constructed in 36 states/UTs. 603,175 villages were declared open defecation free in five years.
- More than 30 crore people participated in the behaviour change campaigns under the world’s largest behaviour largest programme.
- On 8 August 2020, an Audio-Video Experience Centre, RashtriyaSwachhata Kendra (RSK) has been set up in New Delhi to bring to the people the unique story of continuous promotion for cleanliness and the success of Swachh Bharat Mission.
Outcome:
- Rural sanitation coverage of almost 100% has been achieved due to availability of toilet facilities to all villagers and their motivation to use toilets.
- On the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, all the districts, states and union territories declared themselves open defecation free.
Impact:
- As a result of the Swachh Bharat Mission, 55 crore people changed their behaviour and started using toilets. With the attainment of Swachh Bharat, there has been a significant reduction in water and sanitation related diseases. The Swachh Bharat Mission has resulted in an annual profit of more than Rs. 50,000 per household in rural India.
- After becoming Open Defecation Free (ODF), many villages have seen a reduction in the number of deaths due to diseases like diarrhoea, malaria etc. Child health and nutrition have also improved.
- In 2014, Government of India launched ‘Swachh Bharat SwachhVidyalaya’ (SBSV) initiative to ensure that all schools in India have access to separate functional toilets for boys and girls.
7. Achievement of Sustainable Development Goal
Achieving an ODF India in record time also meant that India attained Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2–Sanitation for all a whopping eleven years before the UN’s SDG target of 31 December 2030.
8. Phase II: ODF Plus
- Swachh Bharat Mission in its Phase II is marching on towards ODF Plus that Includes overall cleanliness in villages, and solid and liquid waste management in rural India.
- The Government of India, in February 2020, approved Phase-II of the SBM(G) with a total outlay of Rs. 1,40,881 crores to focus on the sustainability of ODF status and Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM).
- Apart from budgetary allocation from Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS) and the corresponding State share, remaining funds will be dovetailed form 15th Finance Commission grants to Rural Local Bodies, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR funds, and revenue generation models, etc., particularly for SLWM.
Waste to Wealth: The DDWS is working to identify new decentralized and cost-effective technology solutions to support in: cleaning and rejuvenating water bodies in rural areas, grey water faecal sludge management, single use plastic waste management, animal waste management towards realizing the concept of Waste to Wealth.
GOBARDhan: The main focus of GOBARDhan is keeping villages clean, increasing the income of rural households, and generation of energy and organic manure from cattle waste.
Source: PIB e-Booklet on Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen)
AG/AR/TS