Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Objectives, Need and Importance

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a five year long cleanliness campaign launched by the Government of India on 2^nd October 2014. The campaign was aimed for making the streets, roads and offices clean from filth and garbage. One of the main objectives of the drive is to make India Open Defecation Free (ODF). The campaign also targets raising public awareness about cleanliness through rigorous media campaigns and to institute door to door garbage collection in rural/urban household and ensuring its safe disposal.

Launch of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was launched by the Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi on 2^nd October 2014. Launching the events from Raj Path, New Delhi, he also paid his respects to Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri on their birth anniversary.

Prime Minister stated that among the two dreams of Gandhiji – Quit India and clean India, the first one has already been achieved, while the second one “Clean India” is yet to be achieved.

Prime Minister along with other dignitaries pledged for cleanliness from the dais and also presented the winners of tagline and logo design with cheque and honorific.

Objectives of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

The various objectives stated under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan are listed in bulleted points below-

• Improving the quality of life in rural areas through cleanliness and personal hygiene.
• To make India free of open defecation within five years, till 2^nd October 2019.
• To construct 90 million toilets in rural areas at an estimated cost of Rs 1.96 lakh crore.
• To encourage private sectors for making capital expenditure in the project or into the operational and maintenance cost.
• To convert unsanitary toilets into the toilets with flush.
• Create awareness among communities towards sanitation and cleanliness.
• To bring about behavioral changes in the people towards sanitation and hygiene.
• Motivating the communities for adopting a proper sanitation model for better health and life.
• To tell people how sanitation is linked to their overall health and happiness.
• To encourage and acknowledge new technological innovation in the field of sanitation or cleanliness.
• To rope in proper support from eminent personalities and notable public figures to raise awareness among the people.
• To devise a proper, door to door, waste collection and disposal system, both in villages as well as urban areas.
• To make necessary changes in the local bodies in order to strengthen their functions and efficiency.
• To ensure proper availability of water in rural areas through a network of pipes.
• To construct separate toilets for boys and girls in all the schools throughout the country.
• To provide clean drinking water in all the schools and also to ensure availability of toiletries like soap etc.
• To provide proper toilets at all the anganwadis in the country.

Why India Needs Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a much needed initiative by India, as poor state of cleanliness in the country could be directly linked to high infant mortality and degrading health conditions.

Poor hygiene and cleanliness has been causing maximum number of infant deaths in the country. Moreover, there is a direct link between poor sanitation and diseases like diarrhea, cholera and typhoid etc.

As on 2014 almost 60% of population of India was defecating in open resulting in several life threatening diseases like cholera etc.

Also Read: Role of the Youth of Nation in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

Importance of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

Swachh Bharat Mission is very important considering the condition of sanitation, cleanliness and hygiene in India.

Millions of deaths in India have been reported in previous years due to diseases resulting from poor sanitation and hygiene. Also, people were not fully aware of the need for cleanliness and its impact on their health and social life.

Every urban/rural Indian household as well as offices were generating a good quantity of waste every day. This waste was either being accumulated or was strewn on streets in the absence of proper collection and disposal mechanism.

It had become imperative to make people aware of the nuisance caused by open defecation and also to strengthen the local bodies for proper door to door efficient collection of waste and its disposal.

Brand Ambassadors of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

The Prime Minister of India, Sri Narendra Modi had nominated seven persons as the Brand Ambassadors of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, from the dais of inauguration of the Abhiyan on 2^nd October 2014. They were the notable personalities belonging to various fields like sports and television etc. Name of the persons nominated as the Brand Ambassador of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan are given below-

• Kapil Sharma – famous comedian and notable television personality.
• Padmanabha Acharya – A politician and former governor of Nagaland.
• Sonal Mansingh – Indian classical dancer and Member of Parliament from Rajya Sabha.
• Sourav Ganguly – Eminent cricket personality.
• Aroon Purie – Indian businessman and founder and editor-in-chief of India Today.
• Kiran Bedi – Retired Indian Police Services officer who is presently serving as the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry.
• Cherukuri Ramoji Rao – Indian businessman, educationist, film producer and media entrepreneur.

Swachh Bharat Mission in Urban Areas

• Swachh Bharat Mission Urban (SBM-U) was launched under the Swachh Bharat Mission Campaign on 2^nd October 2014.
• SBM-U aimed at making the urban areas of India, open defecation free by constructing hygienic sanitary toilets.
• Other main objectives of the Swachh Bharat Mission Urban are elimination of manual scavenging by ensuring door to door collection of waste, its segregation and proper disposal.
• The Swachh Bharat Mission Urban also aims to inculcate modern and scientific techniques for managing municipal solid waste.
• To make people aware about the waste management and to augment the capacity of urban local bodies to ensure their proper functioning and cleanliness.

Swachh Bharat Mission in Gramin/Rural Areas

• Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin was instituted under the Swachh Bharat Mission inaugurated on 2^nd October 2014 to improve the sanitary condition of rural areas and to make them free of open defecation.
• The Gramin mission aims for constructing nearly 90 million toilets in rural areas till the end of Swachh Bharat Mission on 2^nd October 2019.
• The project aims for creating awareness among the villagers and motivating panchayats to participate actively in the cleanliness campaigns.
• The framework of Swachh Bharat Mission Rural has been divided into three parts – planning phase, implementation phase and sustainability phase.

Swachh Survekeshan Survey 2019

Swachh Survekshan Survey 2019 was done by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to rank the cities on the cleanliness index. The survey was conducted on 4237 cities and was remarkably completed in just 28 days. The survey was also completely digitalized and paperless.

Cities were given the GFC (Garbage Free City) star ratings and ODF, ODF+ and ODF++ ratings as well based on the documents and photos uploaded during the survey. Once again Indore topped the list of Swachh Survekshan 2019 by being the cleanest city, followed by Bhopal as the cleanest capital. Ujjain stood at number one among the cleanest cities with a population category of 3 lakh to 10 lakh.

The Hon’ble President of India Sri Ramnath Kovind handed over the awards to the nominees at a function in New Delhi on 6^th March 2019.

There was an urgent need to improve India’s urban and rural sanitary condition in the past decade. Almost 60% of Indian population was defecating in open as per the survey conducted in 2014. India was also called the capital of open defecation, which was a blot on the land which prides itself on the principles of Mahatma Gandhi. However, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has a positive effect on the sanitary condition, health and economy of Indian people and India as well.