Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in its Full Swing in 2019

The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan which was launched on 2^nd October 2014 by the Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi for the duration of 5 years has now come to the end on 2^nd October 2019.

The main goal of the Mission was to make India completely free from open defecation by the end of the mission for which the government has made all possible efforts and probably has nearly succeeded in achieving the target.

As we all know that the problem of open defecation lies at the root of Indian society and removing it is not a piece of cake that is why the Swachh Bharat Mission has gone through many ups and downs during the period and was also criticized many times by politicians and other personalities yet was welcomed by the mass population of India.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2019

After the 2^nd October 2018, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has entered into its last year of operation which will be ended on 2^nd October 2019. In the last four years, the mission has brought many behavioural changes in the daily activities of the people. Door to door garbage collection, dry and wet waste segregation, plastic waste management, construction of toilets etc. has changed the situation completely.

Steps of Various States Governments towards Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is not the first cleanliness mission of the central government in India but many other cleanliness missions have also been activated as Nirmal Bharat Yojana and many others but the Swachh Bharat Mission is the biggest cleanliness drive in India ever and that is the main reason behind the mission for being successful and people appreciating by providing their participation.

With the cleanliness drive of central government, many state governments also started some cleanliness campaigns and mission in their areas which helped them to get the level of sanitation and also mention them in top cleaned cities and states in India. Few important of them are provided below:

• Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh which is also called the ‘Heart of the India’ looks most serious about the cleanliness activities. The Madhya Pradesh government has made all efforts to make it completely open Defecation Free (ODF) State and ultimately it has succeeded in converting more than 50 districts and about 50 thousand villages into open defecation free. The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh asked people to support in cleanliness for at least 2 days in a week to achieve the cleanliness as soon as possible. The progress of Swachh Bharat Mission in Gujarat in the last operation year is found to be approximately 40% more than that of the previous year.

• Gujarat

Gujarat followed the concept of “Cleanliness is Godliness” of Mahatma Gandhi and started working in this field with various cleanliness drives. Gujarat government mainly focused on the use of community toilets by the people instead of going for open defecation, management and segregation of plastic and non-plastic wastes and providing a plastic free environment. They also launched few other programs under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan like Solid Waste Management Program, Pay and Use Toilet Scheme, City Sanitation Plan etc.

• Kerala

The Kerala government gave a slogan of “My Waste My Responsibility” under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. In Kerala, the government requested to treat various types of wastes in different and proper ways. The government instructed people to manage the bio-degradable wastes in appropriate ways as taught from the childhood and to handover the non-biodegradable wastes to the responsible departments for further recycling. The Kerala government has also planted Material (Waste) Collection Facility (MCF), Resource Recovery Facility (RRF) and Plastic Shredding Unit to manage the wastes.

• Arunachal Pradesh

The state of Arunachal Pradesh has shown a special interest towards Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and is almost about to be declared 100% open defecation free state by next few months if it continues to work in the same manner. To make the mission ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ effective in the state, the state government here launched another state programme to promote cleanliness in Arunachal Pradesh and named the mission ‘Hamara Elan Swachhta Aur Nari Uthan”. The mission was aimed at two important social issues cleanliness and women empowerment.

• Pune (Maharashtra)

Pune is a grand city in Maharashtra which came into light because of its various cleanliness activities during Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in which many famous celebrities and personalities participated and made the event more special. In the series, the Municipal Corporation of Pune launched a cleanliness program “Chakachak Pune” to ensure cleanliness and complete hygiene in Pune. The Corporation mainly focuses on management of waste segregation. Thus the contribution of Pune in cleanliness drive made it to secure a reputable position in national ranking.

• Jharkhand

Jharkhand has also worked immensely in the field of cleanliness under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. With about 95% achievement of the mission, Jharkhand is on the way to be declared an open defecation free state soon. Jharkhand has not only worked on constructing new toilets but has also worked on painting the old and new toilets as well. The schooling children in Jharkhand are also taught the sanitation habits and how to do them. Jharkhand government is doing all possible way to achieve 100% sanitation in the state.

These were some important states doing well in the field of sanitation and hygiene. All these efforts by different state governments have made Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to work rapidly in the last year of its operation.

Challenges for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2019

Although the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is the biggest cleanliness drive yet implementing it in such a largely populated country is like a herculean task. The project of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was applied with a view to make India completely open defecation free by 2^nd October 2019 but the eradication of such a thing that is being practiced in India for many centuries is not that simple. There were and still are several challenges that Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has to face, such as:

• The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan lacks the proper attention towards the waste management.
• The solid wastes are deliberately land filled which is scientifically unhygienic for the human being and also for animals.
• India with huge sewage disposal lacks the proper sewage facilities.
• The open defecation is being practiced in India since long ago. People won’t turn towards the change rapidly.
• Lack of waste dumping facilities makes people to spread their garbage on the roadside and also on the highways.
• The amount that is sent for construction of toilets in the villages does not reach there.
• It has also been reported that the people who want to construct toilets in villages are scoffed and harassed by the authorities responsible for constructing toilets by them.
• People also suffer to pay bribe for the money that is allocated by the government to construct the household toilets.
• Many localities in India lack Municipal body to establish and operate the cleanliness activities.
• Most of the parts having their own Municipal Corporation lacks of accountability among the employees and the habit of dutifulness.
• Lack of proper technologies in different parts is also a major component for creating obstacle in proper implementation of the mission.
• Participation and awareness of citizens is the most important thing for the mission to be succeeding lacking which the mission may fall to failure.

These are some major challenges that Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has faced and is still facing. Definitely every major initiative has to go through several challenges to meet success and so is with Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. As declared by the government, Lots of things have been achieved by now but lots are yet to be achieved.

Achievements of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2019

Despite many challenges, the greatest cleanliness drive ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ has become successful beyond expectations. The achievements of the mission should not be left untold. Although the list of the achievements of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is quiet long, we have discussed few of its achievements here:

• This campaign has made a big change in the country regarding cleanliness and people are forced to think in this direction.
• The most important achievement of the cleanliness campaign is that the people are inspired to use the toilet instead of defecating in the open.
• Villages in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana have now become open defecation free.
• It is also a big achievement of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan that people are now giving a lot of support in the campaigns.
• The positive effect of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan can also be seen in seen in the department of Tourism in India.
• By reducing the open dumping and open defecation in major ratio, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has reduced the occurrence of hazardous diseases in India.
• The government data says that more than 10 crore household toilets were built in the 5 years under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
• All over 6 lakh villages and 700 districts are declared as open defecation free.

These are some important achievements of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Despite these, there have been several other achievements made by the drive. These achievements make the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan meaningful and inspire the people of India to contribute the most in the mission.