Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: The Clean India Mission

Abstract

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA), one of the flagship programme’s of the government, has heralded a change in the sphere of sanitation programmes in the country. Though India has made strides in improving sanitations standards, the dismal sanitation statistics for both rural and urban areas still leave much to be desired. With sanitation as a key priority, SBA was introduced by restructuring the erstwhile Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) for raising the standards in sanitation.Since its launch on 2nd October 2014, the country has seen an unprecedented scaling up of sanitation related activities. States are competing with each other to fulfill goals and targets by 2019 which is the target date to achieve an open-defecation free country. According to the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS), sanitation coverage has gone up from 42 percent in October 2014 to 60 percent in 2017. As per MWDS, three states – Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim – 85 districts across the country and 1,52,535 villages have already been declared open defecation free (ODF). These achievements have clearly contributed to making sanitation a political priority. The Ministry has also come up with ODF Sustainability Guidelines with a view to address sustainability.