The Swachh Bharat Mission is not only changing the way sanitation is viewed in India but also burying the deeply entrenched taboos around it
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ambitious Swachh Bharat Mission some months after coming to power five years ago, there was both scepticism and awe at the sheer scale of the government’s initiative.
After announcing the programme in his Independence Day address in 2014, Modi launched the cleanliness drive from October 2 with the aim to make India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2, 2019, which marked the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi had laid great emphasis on cleanliness and urged Indians to clean after themselves, famously remarking, “Sanitation is more important that independence”.
The Swachh Bharat Mission aimed at providing access to toilet facilities in all rural households along with achieving 100 per cent scientific management of municipal waste in 4,041 statutory towns in the country.
As Swachh Bharat came to its finish line on 2 October, the government hailed the success of the programme, however critics questioned the effectiveness of the sanitation drive. There is no doubt that Swachh Bharat has achieved many of its targets, but recent investigations have found that many of the toilets constructed as part of the program are either not working or are not being used for other reasons.
Some cite lack of water or poor maintenance while others say they prefer to defecate in the open because of deeply ingrained cultural habits in rural areas.
While there is much debate on how the success or failure of the Swachh Bharat Mission should be evaluated, it must be acknowledged that the drive brought sanitation to the centre of all India’s public discourse and a 100 million toilets have been constructed in these five years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said rural India has declared itself to be ODF on Gandhi Jayanti earlier this month, with the government completing its set target but critics say open defecation is still very much a reality in many states of the country.
The states and Union Territories, which have been declared ODF, are Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Pudducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand.
When the programme began in 2014, only 39 per cent of the population had access to toilet facilities, however, in the last five years almost 98 per cent have access to toilets. Unicef has claimed that over 100,000 lives could be saved in the country because of better sanitation.
A top Unicef official called the drive an “example-setting programme for the world” and a “game-changer” as it altered the way Indian society behaved towards cleanliness. Unicef India’s Sanitation (WASH) chief Nicolas Osbert said: “Five years ago, I was told that talking about open defection was a taboo here, even with the administration and the people but after Swachh Bharat, even the Chief Ministers, District Magistrates propagate open defecation free India.”
According to Osbert, the primary goal behind the Swachh Bharat Mission has been met but the project needs to continue and with bigger goals this time so that the aim to get a clean India is achieved.
“The positive impact of the movement is clear on the field and is certainly measurable,” he said.
“Five years of time, considering the size and diversity of the nation, the success of Swachh Bharat Mission is a world record. This is certainly a world record,” Osbert emphasised.
“But I must say the battle is won, as we complete five years of Swachh Bharat Mission. With that being said, I would add that India needs to continue the mission ahead and also work on other important aspects, like hand washing with soap, maintaining the toilets,” Osbert said.
Sources say an advanced version of Swachh Bharat Mission is already in the pipeline, which would focus on managing sewage faecal matter, solid waste management and other basic issues that create huge environmental implications.
Though the date for the announcement for the campaign has not been fixed yet, the government officials overseeing the policy-making of the campaign claimed that the Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 or Open Defecation Free (ODF)-plus scheme would be announced “very soon”.
There is much more that remains to be done to make India a clean and sanitised country, but Swachh Bharat marked a new beginning in the lives of a huge section of population who lacked the basic facility of a toilet. Devoid of dignity for so long, the change is most palpable in the lives of these millions who no longer have to wait for a designated time of the day to relieve themselves.
Be it Sabita Biswas from Assam’s Morigaon district, Babli of Khanna village in Punjab or the women of Nagwa in Uttar Pradesh, all recognise that the toilets built by the government under the Swachh Bharat scheme has improved their quality of lives.
As Biswas narrated her story, before the toilets were made relieving herself was a harrowing everyday task which became far more difficult during the monsoons and floods.
It is a similar story in Nagwa, Uttar Pradesh. The toilet was built after 28 years as per an old lady. She added that women used to get up as early as 3 a.m. and look everywhere to find a private place to relieve themselves.
“We had real trouble if men folk were up … In the afternoons it would be difficult. So one could go only after dark, making them vulnerable to other dangers. But with the construction of a toilet, there is a reason to rejoice,” she said.
“There were no toilets before. People used to defecate openly with flies and mosquitoes infesting the place. But now with a toilet in place, it is a lot more comfortable. Almost every household has a toilet and has created a world of a difference,” said a woman from Sikkim.
With an initiative like the Swachh Bharat Mission, India has made phenomenal progress in the area of sanitation, the challenge will now be to sustain efforts to build on the mission and take it forward. Issues like sanitation cannot be solved by the government alone, communities in urban and rural area will need to work in tandem with the government, only then can the drive be a complete success.
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