Mysuru has emerged as the country’s cleanest city followed by Chandigarh and Tiruchi in a sanitation survey conducted by the Ministry of Urban Development under the Swachh Bharat Mission.New Delhi Municipal Council came in fourth while Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi was ranked 65th among 73 cities. Dhanbad was at the bottom of the ladder.

Swachh Bharat Mission 

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Launched the ambitious ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ (Clean India Mission) 2nd October 2014.The ‘Abhiyan’ was launched on the ocassion of Mahatama Gandhi’s 145th birth anniversary. The focus of the Strategy is to move towards a ‘Swachh Bharat’ by providing flexibility to State governments, as sanitation is a state subject. 

Mission Objectives

The national campaign, which will run till October 2, 2019, aims to: 

1.  Eliminate open defecation by constructing toilets for households, communities.
2.  Eradicate manual scavenging
3.  Introduce modern and scientific municipal solid waste management practices
4.  Enable private sector participation in the sanitation sector
5.  Change people’s attitudes to sanitation and create awareness.

SBM, has two Sub-Missions, the SBM (Urban) and the SBM (Gramin), is being implemented by the Ministry of Urban Development  and by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation  for urban and rural areas respectively.

CONTEXT

According to Census 2011, India’s urban population is 377 million or 31% of the total population. These numbers are expected to increase to 600 million by 2031. The Census 2011 also showed that in 4,041 statutory towns, close to eight million households do not have access to toilets and defecate in the open (7.90 million). Weak sanitation has significant health costs and untreated sewage from cities is the single biggest source of water resource pollution in India. This indicates both the scale of the challenge ahead of the Indian cities and the huge costs incurred from not addressing them.

The rural sanitation programme in India was introduced in the year 1954 as a part of the First Five Year Plan of the Government of India. The 1981 Census revealed rural sanitation coverage was only 1%. From 1999, a “demand driven” approach under the “Total Sanitation Campaign” (TSC) emphasized more on Information, Education and Communication (IEC), Human Resource Development (HRD), Capacity Development activities to increase awareness among the rural people and generation of demand for sanitary facilities. The “Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan” (NBA) the successor programme of the TSC, was launched from 1.4.2012. The objective was to accelerate the sanitation coverage in the rural areas so as to comprehensively cover the rural community through renewed strategies and saturation approach. To accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and to put focus on sanitation, the Prime Minister of India launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on 2nd October, 2014. The Mission Coordinator shall be Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) with two Sub-Missions, the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) and the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), which aims to achieve Swachh Bharat by 2019.

Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Urban

Elimination of open defecation; Eradication of Manual Scavenging;  Modern and Scientific Municipal Solid Waste Management; To effect behavioral change regarding healthy sanitation practices; Generate awareness about sanitation and its linkage with public health; Capacity Augmentation for ULB’s; To create an enabling environment for private sector participation in Capex (capital expenditure) and Opex (operation and maintenance)

The main objectives of the SBM (Rural) are as under:

Bring about an improvement in the general quality of life in the rural areas, by promoting cleanliness, hygiene and eliminating open defecation; Accelerate sanitation coverage in rural areas to achieve the vision of Swachh Bharat by 2nd October 2019;Motivate Communities and Panchayati Raj Institutions to adopt sustainable sanitation practices and facilities through awareness creation and health education; Encourage cost effective and appropriate technologies for ecologically safe and sustainable sanitation; Develop where required, Community managed sanitation systems focusing on scientific Solid & Liquid Waste Management systems for overall cleanliness in the rural areas.

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