What is Swachh Bharat Abhiyan?

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a government-originated project in India which is aimed at making India “Clean and Caring” started by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi . It encompasses a number of initiatives and projects to clean up the Indian society and create a better living environment. In this blog, we take a look at what is Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and what sort of impacts it has had so far.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan(SBA), Swachh Bharat Mission(SBM) or Clean India Mission(CIM) is a country wide campaign initiated by the government of India in 2014 to eliminate open defecation and improve solid waste management (SWM). Phase 1 of the mission held up till October 2019. Phase 2 will be implemented b/w 2020-21 and 2024-25.

Initiated by the Govt. of India, the mission designed to achieve an “open-defecation free”(ODF) India by 2 October 2019, the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi.

Objective

• The objective of the first phase of the mission also contained eradication of manual scavenging, generation awareness and escort about a behavior change regarding sanitation practices, and augmentation of ability at the local level.
• The second stage of the mission approach to sustain the open defecation free status and improve the management of solid and liquid waste. The mission is directed at progressing towards target 6.2 of the sustainable development goals number 6 established by the United Nations in 2015.

Launch

• The campaign was formally launched on 2 October 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi by prime minister Narendra Modi.
• It is India’s largest cleanliness drive to date with 3 million government employees and students from all parts of India participating in 4,043 cities, town and rural communities.
• At a rally in Champaran, the prime minister called the campaign Satyagraha se Swachhagraha in reference to Gandhi’s Champaran Satyagraha launched on 10 April,1916.
• The mission was breach into two: Rural and Urban.
• In rural areas “SBM-Gramin” was assisted and monitored through the ministry of drinking water and sanitation; whereas “SBM-Urban” was look after by the ministry of housing and urban affairs.

Allocation

• Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is foreseen to cost over ₹620 billion (US$8.7 billion). The govt. provides an incentive of ₹12,000(US$170) for each toilet constructed by a rural family.
• An amount of ₹90 billion (US$1.3 billion) was assigned for the mission in the 2016 Union budget of India. The world bank offered a US$1.5 billion loan and $25 million in technical assistance in 2016 for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to support India’s universal sanitation initiation.
• The programme has also derived funds and technical facilitation from the World Bank, corporation as part of corporation social authority initiatives, and by state governments below the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan schemes.

Second Phase

• The Centre has approved the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan(Rural) with an estimated central and state budget of ₹52,497 crore.
• The second phase will be carry out on a mission mode between 2020-21 and 2024-25.
• The second phase will target on Open Defecation Free Plus (ODF PLUS), which combines ODF sustainability and solid and liquid waste management(SLWM).
• The ODF plus programme will converge with MGNREGA. mainly for grey water management, and will accomplice the newly launched Jal Jeevan Mission.
• The programme will also work towards affirms that no one is left behind and everyone uses a toilet.
• The fund sharing ideal between the Centre and states will be 90:10 for north-eastern states and Himalayan states and UT of J&K;60:40 for other states; and 100:0 for other Union Territories for all the components.

Final Words

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is the campaign to clean India. This is a national initiative of the Narendra Modi government. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is focused on the importance of cleanliness, and it is consistent with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was launched on 2nd October 2014. The campaign was launched as an effort to provide a clean India and to achieve Swachh Bharat.

We hope you enjoyed our blog about the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a movement to make India’s cities, villages and towns open-defecation free. This is no easy task and the government has set a target of a 90% open-defecation free India. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan will require a large amount of money and efforts from the government and private sector. If you are interested in finding out more educational content , please visit our website-Edukar.

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