Clean India Movement

Introduction The Clean India Movement, also called the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, was launched on 2nd October, 2014 to a accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage in India within five years. Its first objective is to make India open defecation free by Gandhiji's 150th birthday on 2nd October, 2019. Another objective of the mission is the eradication of the repulsive practice of manual scavenging and to improve the quality of life by promoting cleanliness and hygiene. The mission also aims to effect behavioural change in the people regarding healthy and sustainable sanitation practices by generating awareness about sanitation and how it is linked with health.

Division of Movement 

The movement was sub-divided into two parts, rural and urban. The rural part, called Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin,is coordinated by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MOWS), whereas the urban part, Swachh Bharat Mission Urban, is coordinated by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MHUD). For the urban mission, the government set a target of building 67 lakh household toilets and five lakh community or public *oilets in urban areas by October 2019. In the rural mission, the Swachhta action plan was to improve the levels of cleanliness throuıgh solid and liquid waste management activities and make all villages Open Defecation Free (ODF), clean and sanitlsed.

Turning into National Movement 

This movement has turned into a national movement with citizens now becoming active participants in cleanliness activities across the nation. For their convenience, the government developed the Swachh Bharat App, which can be downloaded on smartphones. With this App, the citizens are empowered, as they can report and evaluate the cleanliness of their own colony, city and the country. This App will ensure the liability of the concerned cleaning agency responsible. Capacity building and knowledge management of the agencies in both rural and urban areas is being ensured by upgrading their knowledge, skills and attitudes at various levels. They are also being trained to carry out their responsibilities effectively and sustainably.

To ensure that the urban mission is achieving its targets, a Swachh Survekshan' has been held every year from 2016 onwards. The 201 9 survey covered 4237 Urban Local Bodies and Cantonment Boards. For the rural.areas, more than nine crore toilets had been constructed under the mission across the country till 5th February, 2019, increasing the sanitation coverage in rural areas to over 98%. The survey also reported that 27 States/ Union Territories, 601 districts, 5934 blocks, 246116 gram panchayats and 550151 villages had been declared ODF by this date. Further, nine crore 16 lakh individual household latrines (LHHLs) had been constructed.

extractive of clean india movement

We can conclude that the mission has turned into a nationwide movement. With citizens now becoming active participants in cleanliness activities across the nation, the dream of a 'Clean India', once seen by Mahatma Gandhi, has begun to take shape. Further, the mission is well set to meet its target of an ODF India when we celebrate Mahatma Gandhi's 150th Birth Anniversary.