Role of Students in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan – Student’s Role in Swachh Bharat Mission

What is Swachh Bharat Abhiyan?

The honourable Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi had launched a mass campaign ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ on 2^nd October 2014. The campaign was launched with an aim to make India and especially its rural areas completely open defecation free (ODF) by the 150^th birth anniversary of great Mahatma Gandhi falling on 2^nd October 2019. The main reason behind launching the campaign was to realize the vision of Mahatma Gandhi of making India the cleanest country in the world. The Prime Minister himself started the cleanliness drive by picking up the broom and cleaning the streets and dirty places nearby.

Role of Students in Swachh Bharat Mission

On the date of launching of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the Prime Minister has clearly stated that every student and child will play the most important role in spreading and promoting the cleanliness in whole India that is why he had declared every student of India the brand ambassador of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is such an initiative, in which the participation for every individual is equally and very important. Although the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan needs the co-operation of every Indian yet the co-operation of the students of India plays the most important role in making the campaign truly successful. We are describing here few points to elaborate the role of students in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan/Clean India Campaign:

Role of Students from Rural Areas in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

• The students from rural areas strongly need the awareness about the healthy habits that is why the authorities and responsible teachers should regularly teach students about the healthy habits and their benefits.
• Usually Rural areas use dustbin almost nowhere which is the biggest reason for the cleanliness campaign to be operated in these areas. Students should have a habit of using dustbin in schools as well as at the houses and should also ask their parents to use it.
• The students can visit all nearby houses in their village and request people to not defecate in open by telling them the dark side of it. They can also motivate them to use household toilets.
• Most of the rural people are still unaware of the support of the government for the construction of household toilets so students can make them aware of the scheme of the government and also about the procedure of applying for it.
• Many children in school can’t go to school due to the insufficient funds and facilities so it becomes the responsibility of those who go to school, to teach those fellows about healthy habits and sanitation and can keep them away from diseases.
• The authorities should also plan some awards for the students to laud their valuable support towards the cleanliness.
• The students should be taught the process and benefits of land-filing so that they can motivate their parents and neighbours to adapt to it instead of spreading the pile of garbage.

Role of Students from Urban Areas in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

• The educational authorities should step ahead to make a new rule under which there would be a mandatory class for every student in which they would be taught about the cleanliness, the benefits of cleanliness and the losses that meet due to lack of it. The authority should also ensure the presence of every student in that class.
• The students should be taught the healthy habits of sanitation and hygiene like brushing teeth twice a day, bathing regularly, cutting of nails regularly, washing hands before having meals, avoid eating unhealthy and stale food etc.
• The Students should also conduct several cleanliness drives in guidance of their teachers like cleaning of their class, school, mess, play-grounds and surrounding areas of their School.

• The Students should use dustbins for the disposal of their every single obsolete stuff and should also teach other students to do so.
• The students can also plan some plantation programmes in their free times in which they with their friends can plant several plants on nearby places of their School and also their house and society which are not in use.
• With the work of sanitation, students can also work of motivation by telling their parents, relatives and neighbours about these activities related to cleanliness that they have done in School and also about the benefit of cleanliness.
• The students can also fix a day of the week and declare that the cleanliness day on which they would spend their time on cleaning the areas surrounding them either in their locality or nearby their school.
• Clicking the photo of the spot before the cleanliness drive and after the cleanliness drive and publishing it on social media would also put a major impact on other people to bring some changes around them with the help of cleanliness.
• By keeping cleanliness in and around the School, students can convey a deep message to the society and I am very sure that it will not fail in making other people realizing the value of cleanliness and indulging other in the campaign.
• Littering everywhere especially in public places is the main problem Indian cities are suffering from so students can also take stand to cleaning these areas and decorate them in such a way that no other would dare to litter there anymore.

Need and Launch of Swachh Bharat – Swachh Vidyalaya Campaign

The government of India understands the importance of students very well in keeping and promoting cleanliness through healthy habits which made it to start a separate cleanliness drive concerning students in India belonging to both rural as well as urban areas. The name of the campaign is ‘Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya or Clean India Clean Schools’ Campaign.

The Swachh Bharat – Swachh Vidyalaya Campaign was launched on 25th September 2014, somewhat, close to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which is mainly the cleanliness campaign for the students and also by the students. The main purpose of launching Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is to ensure the availability of proper cleanliness in Schools, use of dustbins, proper facility of fresh drinking water for students, healthy environments and many other such factors which are the basic and most important needs if students in School hours.

Important Elements under Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya Scheme

The government has set few mandatory steps to be followed by every School, College or Educational Institutions. These are:

• The educational institutions must have proper arrangement of fresh and clean water for the purposes like for drinking, washing hands, toilets, cleaning School, cooking in institution for some occasion and also they must have the clean water storage facility.
• The authority should have the facility for 9 to 10 students to wash their hands simultaneously. Also there must be teacher to tell the students how to wash their hands in a perfect way. Apart from this, there must a session too to teach students about healthy habits and the students must be ensured to wash their hands every time right before having meal and after using toilets.
• The Institution must have facility of separate toilets for boys and girls maintaining the ratio of one unit toilet containing one toilet and three urinals for 40 students. Apart from it, there must be a proper arrangement of facilities for girls during their menstrual days, like a private space, availability of sanitary pads, hand washing soap and liquid, adequate water to wash hands and a dustbin for the disposal of the sanitary pad.
• The Water resources and hand-washing facilities should be regularly cleaned and must be children friendly. The authorities should regularly check for the cleanliness of water resources and water storage and also should maintain hygiene at the toilet and other places which are used frequently.
• The students should be regularly taught about the healthy habits and they must be given home-work related to these habits with the regularly checking of these home works to be done on time. Also there must be a separate class for girls to teach them about the hygienic activities to be done during menstrual cycle to stay away from needless pain and disease.

So you must have understood well by now the important role of students in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan for which the government is itself conscious. We all know that ‘a healthy generation will help create a better nation’ that is why the government has separately focused on the developing the healthy habits among the students. The students can convey the healthy habits effectively and people also take their words seriously. One thing that is obvious is that whether the students succeed in conveying other to maintain hygiene or not but they are the next generation so definitely we are going to have at least a healthy atmosphere in the future.