Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
Date 2 October 2014
Location New Delhi, India
Organised by Narendra Modi
Government of India
Participants Anil Ambani
Sachin Tendulkar
Ruby Yadav
Salman Khan
Priyanka Chopra
Baba Ramdev
Kamal Hassan
Mridula Sinha
Shashi TharoorThe team of TV series Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah
Amitabh Bachchan
Hrithik Roshan
Aamir Khan
Manisha Koirala
Saina Nehwal
Chanda Kochhar
Kapil Sharma
Website Official website

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Hindi: स्वच्छ भारत अभियान, English: Clean India Mission) is a national campaign by the Government of India, covering 4041 statutory towns, to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country.[1][2][3]

This campaign was officially launched on 2 October 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself cleaned the road. It is India's biggest ever cleanliness drive and 3 million government employees and school and college students of India participated in this event.[4][5] The mission was started by Prime Minister Modi, who nominated nine famous personalities for the campaign, and they took up the challenge and nominated nine more people and so on (like the branching of a tree). It has been carried forward since then with people from all walks of life joining it.

The components of the programme as listed in the SBM guidelines are: a) Construction of individual sanitary latrines for households below the poverty line with subsidy (80%) where demand exists. b) Conversion of dry latrines into low-cost sanitary latrines. c) Construction of exclusive village sanitary complexes for women providing facilities for hand pumping, bathing, sanitation and washing on a selective basis where there is not adequate land or space within houses and where village panchayats are willing to maintain the facilities. d) Setting up of sanitary marts. e) Total sanitation of villages through the construction of drains, soakage pits, solid and liquid waste disposal. f) Intensive campaign for awareness generation and health education to create a felt need for personal, household and environmental sanitation facilities

With effect from 1 April 1999, the Government of India restructured the Comprehensive Rural Sanitation Programme and launched the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC).

To give a fillip to the Total Sanitation Campaign, effective June 2003 the government launched an incentive scheme in the form of an award for total sanitation coverage, maintenance of a clean environment and open defecation-free panchayat villages, blocks and districts called Nirmal Gram Puraskar.

Effective 1 April 2012, the TSC was renamed to Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (SBA).

On 2 October 2014 the campaign was relaunched as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Objectives

This campaign aims to accomplish the vision of a 'Clean India' by 2 October 2019, the 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. It is expected to cost over INR62000 crore (US$9.8 billion).[3][6] Fund sharing between the Central Government and the State Government and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) is 75%:25% (90% : 10% for North Eastern and special category states).[7] The campaign has been described as "beyond politics" and "inspired by patriotism".[8]

Specific objectives are:

Nominees

Modi selected 9 public figures to propagate this campaign.[9][10] They are:

Manisha Koirala at Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in November 2014

Indian film actor Aamir Khan supported and encouraged this initiative and said that he would be happy if he is invited into this campaign.[11] Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu picked up a broom to help clean the cyclone-hit port city of Visakhapatnam in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, as part of the cleanliness campaign.[12]

Brand ambassadors

Venkaiah Naidu listed brand ambassadors in various fields:

On 25 December 2014, Prime Minister Modi nominated nine people including

He also nominated some organisations, including the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Eenadu and India Today besides 'dabbewale' of Mumbai, who deliver home-made food to lakhs of people in the city.

On 8 November 2014, Modi carried the message to Uttar Pradesh and nominated another set of nine people for the state.[13][14]

More than 3 million government employees and school and college students are to participate in the drive.[4][8]

Swachh Bharat Run

A Swachh Bharat Run was organized at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on 2 October 2014. According to a statement from the Rashtrapati Bhavan around 1500 people participated and the event was flagged off by President Pranab Mukherjee. Participants in the run included officers and their families.[15]

Swachh Bharat apps

appdance sucks developers came up with ideas to support the mission using mobile technologies. The Times of India published an article on how "Desi companies beat Facebook in 'Swachh' apps race".[16] Vocativ wrote of one such app that it could change the relationship between government and people.[17]

Real-time monitoring

The government will be launching a nationwide real-time monitoring system for toilets constructed under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. For this the government of India is bringing awareness among the people through quite good advertisements . With this system, the government aims to attain a 100% open defecation free India by 2019.[18]

Swachh Bharat short film

NIT Rourkela PhD students and Sacred Heart School Students,Tumkur have made a short film on Swachh Bharat, conveying the message that Swachh Bharat is not a one-day event but should be part of life, in order for the goal of a clean India to be achieved.[19]

The Indo Nepal Doctors Association has also taken inspiration from the Prime Minister of India and on 3 January 2015 launched Swachh Bharat Nepal - Swasth Bharat Nepal Abhiyan at the Indo-Nepali border region of Sunauli-Belihiya, which is the entry to the birthplace of the Buddha, Lumbini, Nepal.

Criticism

Criticisms of the campaign include:

Some regard the motives of Prime Minister Modi as purely political. The prime minister nominated people who were supposed to do some cleaning-up. They would then nominate others, and so slowly the whole of India would be involved. Thus, anyone seeing a participant in the scheme, especially a celebrity, would inevitably link their actions to Modi, building up his reputation.[20]

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is not a new programme. Launched in 1986 as the Central Rural Sanitation Programme, the scheme later became the Total Sanitation Campaign (1999) and Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (2012). Some regard it as merely a renaming.[21]

There has been a problem of corruption in delivery of facilities such as toilets and latrines since the launch of the Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) 1986. In rural areas BDOs, GP president, secretaries, and others take bribes from poor Indians to provide them, and the poorest are unable to obtain them because they cannot afford the bribes.

The NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India Aayog), formerly called the Planning Commission, is accused of preparing the guidelines of the scheme based on false reports through upward communication from people on-site such as BDO, GP presidents and secretaries; the Chairman, Deputy Chairman and the other members of the Planning Commission are accused of not checking the information by visiting the villages and physically seeing and talking with the beneficiaries face to face.

The central government is said to be irresponsible in not ensuring that the toilets, latrines, etc. are delivered, as the Ministry of Panchayati Raj closes grievance cases by transferring them to the state government, and never examines the details of whether the state government settles them correctly

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Swachh Bharat campaign should become mass movement: Narendra Modi". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  2. ↑ "PM reviews preparations for launch of Mission Swachh Bharat". Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Swachh Bharat: PM Narendra Modi launches 'Clean India' mission". Zee News. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: PM Narendra Modi to wield broom to give India a new image". The Times of India. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  5. ↑ "As it happened: PM Narendra Modi's 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'". Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  6. ↑ "PM Modi's 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan' set for mega launch Thursday; schools, offices gear up for event". Zee News. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Swachh Bharat Mission says". Ministry of Urban development. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign is beyond politics, PM Narendra Modi says". The Times of India. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  9. ↑ "PM Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Anil Ambani dedicates himself to the movement". 2 October 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  10. ↑ "PM launches Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan". 2 October 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  11. ↑ "Aamir Khan on PM Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: We Should All Support This". NDTV. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  12. ↑ [http://www.dilkeshvarkumar.in/DILKESHVAR KUMAR Venkaiah Naidu picked up the broom to clean cyclone-hit port city of Visakhapatnam]. indtoday.com. 24 October 2014
  13. ↑ "PM India". Prime Minister's Office. November 8, 2014. Retrieved November 27, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Press Information Bureau". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. November 8, 2014. Retrieved November 27, 2014.
  15. ↑ "‘Swachh Bharat Run’ organized at Rashtrapati Bhavan". The Times of India.
  16. ↑ "Desi companies beat Facebook in 'Swachh' apps race". The Times of India.
  17. ↑ "This Indian App Could Change How People Talk To Their Government". Vocativ.
  18. ↑ "Swachh Bharat goes hi-tech, govt to track toilet use with iPads". The Hindu. 31 December 2014.
  19. ↑ "Swachh Bharat- Make it your Life Style !!!". NIT Rourkela-Cinematics.
  20. ↑ "‘ Clean India campaign hides dirty politics".
  21. ↑ "‘ Time to clean up your act'". Hindustan Times.