0Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
Swachh Bharat mission led by the government of India
to make India a Clean India.
Mahatma Gandhi once stated that :
"Sanitation is more important than Independence".
He very well understood that sanitation and cleanliness are integral parts of healthy and peaceful lives.
President Pranab Mukherjee, in his address to Parliament in June 2014, said, “For ensuring hygiene, waste management and sanitation across the nation a “Swachh Bharat Mission” will be launched. This will be our tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary to be celebrated in the year 2019”.
Mahatma Gandhi's cleanliness drive was once again revived by our Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi on on 145th birthday anniversary of the great person, Mahatma Gandhi on 2nd of October in 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi, under the name 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'. Also referred to as Swachh Bharat Campaign or Clean India drive or Clean India Mission.
The government of India has aimed to make India a clean India by 2nd of October 2019 (means 150th birth anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi) through this campaign.
The Objective :
The objective of the mission is to cover all the rural and urban areas of the country to present this country as an ideal country before the world.
The mission has targeted aims like eliminating the open defecation, Construct individual, cluster and community toilets, eradicating manual scavenging, complete disposal and reuse of solid and liquid wastes, bringing behavioural changes to people and motivate health practices, spreading cleanliness awareness among people, strengthening the cleanliness systems in the urban and rural areas as well as creating user friendly environment for all private sectors interested for investing in India for cleanliness maintenance.
People associated :
On 2 October, 2014, Modi nominated nine celebrities from various fields to propagate the mission.
The nominated personalities included, Anil Ambani, Mridula Sinha, Baba Ramdev, Kamal Hassan, Priyanka Chopra, Sachin Tendulkar, Salman Khan, Shashi Tharoor and others.
On 25 December, Modi nominated nine more people including the comedian Kapil Sharma, Sourav Ganguly, Kiran Bedi, Padmanabha Acharya, Nagaland Governor, Sonal Mansingh, Ramoji Rao of Eenadu group and Aroon Purie to take forward his “Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan”.
The Prime Minister requested all the people to involve themselves in this event. Around 3 million government employees along with the teachers and students of different schools and colleges across the country have voluntarily joined this "Clean India Campaign".
Some organisations such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, India Today, Eenadu and the popular “dabbewale” of Mumbai were also nominated to be the torchbearers.
While launching this cleanliness drive, the Prime Minister himself had cleaned the road to set an example to the people of India.
Need for swachh Bharat abhiyan :
As estimated the completion of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan would indirectly attract many business houses to clean India. This in turn will improve the GDP growth and generate variety of sources of employment.
The swachh abhiyan can play a great role in reducing death rate, health expenses and lethal disease rate.
Clean India would draw more tourists and improve its economical condition.
Modi also laid emphasis on solid waste management and waste water management, Drinking Water & Sanitation management and the same will be launched in each gram panchayat.
Funds Allocation
This project is expected to cost over Rs. 2 lakhs crore. Fund sharing between the Central and State Governments and Urban Local Bodies is allocated in the ratio of 75:25.
It has been officially stated that for North Eastern and special category states, the allocation of funds is in the ratio of 90:10.
To give a boost to the project, the government has sought financial and technical support from the World Bank.
Also, all big corporates and private organisations are asked to join the movement as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative.
Construction of 31.83 lakhs Toilets till January 2015
According to government data, in January 2015, 7.1 lakh individual household toilets have been built under this dream project. This number is considered the highest for any month since its launch in October 2014. 31.83 lakhs individual toilets have been built until January 2015. So far, Karnataka is the best performer by achieving 61% of the target while Punjab is the worst performer by achieving 5% of the target.
Conclusion :
However, due to the half-hearted cooperation of the citizens of India, all these drives failed to make a strong impact. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan can only be completely successful, if each and every Indian takes up this campaign as his/her own responsibility and join hands together to make it a triumphant mission.
