Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan : People’s Movement a Success one year later? Swachh Bharat : Then and Now……
- National Convenor and Founder, Mission-E-Safai
Indian faction is now admired all around the sphere and time has changed promptly. Now the World is seeing India with immense craving and buoyancy. The rings of change are swift moving! From expeditious resolution moulding to tactile exertion on the deck level, from ameliorated output to India’s stature on the world stage increasing. India is truly undergoing phenomenal metamorphosis. Last year on the eve of Bapu’s jayanti Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched one of his ambitious project “Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan” , a mission to clean India. The campaign aims to realise Mahatma’s dream of “Swachh India” by 2019 when India will celebrate Bapu’s 150th jayanti ,it will be a true honour to Mahatma who relentlessly emphasised on importance swachhta . He was aware of the pathetic situation of Indian rural people at that time and he dreamed of a clean India where he emphasised on cleanliness and sanitation as an integral part of living. Unfortunately, we have completed 69 years of independence and we have only about 30 per cent of the rural households with access to toilets.
Having started this people’s project by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year one would have expected a similar response from the Chief Ministers and government of different States. Sadly that was not forthcoming as it was seen as a BJP-RSS initiative rather than a people’s movement which will benefit 1.25 cr. Indians. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan should be a combined effort of both the government as well as the people. Cleanliness is no doubt connected to the tourism and global interests of the country as a whole. India is already a known hub in the world tourist map. It is high time now that India’s top tourist destinations display high class levels of cleanliness so as to change India’s global perception. With India accounting for more than 60% of the world’s open defecation Prime Ministers personal involvement and initiative set the tempo but on the ground the photo ops have failed to make an impact consequently the Capital was listed in bottom mark in state of cleanliness. No doubt, the Prime Minister himself has taken up a brilliant initiative and is constantly monitoring the state of cleanliness which is actually need of hour. In the months after it was launched, the campaign gained momentum with many celebrities, politicians and academic institutions organising cleanliness drives across the country but somehow it lost the momentum.
Year ago Prime Minister picked up a broom and launched one of the most ambitious programme but the private sector response added to its failure. The response under CSR for Swachh Bharat was negligible and insincere contribution in the area of toilet building , awareness campaign added to its failure and ground level implementation. According to the 2011 Government of India census 67% of the households defecate in the open. We should appreciate Ministry of Drinking and water sanitation which is implementing this ambitious programme in rural belt has built more than 95 lakhs toilets. Narendra Modi’s sanitation policy is quite ambitious and a step in right direction in realisation of Prime Minister’s dream of Clean India by 2019.The Modi government has been quite active in shoring up funds for PM’s pet and ambitious project by launching a separate fund account “Swachh Bharat Kosh” which seek charitable contribution for the ambitious project “Swachh Bharat” latest donor of Rs.100 crore to this noble Kosh is spiritual guru Mata Amritanandayi Maa “Amma”. Such contributions and donation certainly adds to the success of this mission as it has to be a “People revolution towards cleanliness”.
The Modi’s good governance process seems to be running in momentum. One year is not enough to judge a government but it’s enough time to understand and predict its future. The Chief reformer and his team looks sanguine to consummate those hopes and aspirations. In the hindmost 365 days the control and administration has moved from an epoch of policy immobility to an epoch of policy primacy. The Narendra Modi’s ambitious project Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan has certainly changed the mindset of the masses to a considerable extent. Plaudits to him and his zeal.
