It will be a stock-taking exercise for the government when
India celebrates Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary this year as it will also
mark the completion of three years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship
cleanliness drive – the “Swacch Bharat Abhiyan”. The Modi government has set an
ambitious target of Open Defecation Free India by October 2, 2019 when Gandhi’s
150th birth anniversary will be celebrated.
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| DNA India |
Given the giant strides made in a short span of three years,
the government seems headed towards meeting the 2019 deadline of providing
toilets to every household. Under the Swachh Bharat campaign, more than 4.90
crore toilets have already been constructed since October 2, 2014. According to
Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, more than 2.44 lakh villages have
been declared open defecation free and 203 open defecation free districts as on
September 24, 2017. What makes the programme noteworthy is that several public
sector as well as private institutions have joined hands with the government to
make it a grand success. Many business houses have adopted several villages in
this connection under the Corporate Social Responsibility. It is no surprising
then that the country’s sanitation coverage has leapfrogged to more than 68 per
cent compared to just 38 per cent in 2012. But still much more needs to be
done.
Keeping this in view, the government has launched a
fortnight long 'Swachhta Hi Seva' (Cleanliness is Service) campaign which will
culminate on Gandhi Jayanti next month. Under the campaign, several programmes
have been planned to give a fillip to the nationwide cleanliness drive. The
purpose is to reinvigorate the “Swacch Bharat Abhiyan” which was started as a
national movement three years ago. The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation,
which is spearheading the campaign, has been joined by various other
ministries, government departments and non-government organizations to spread
the awareness of cleanliness.
October 2, 2014 will go down in the history books as the
biggest campaign for “Swachh Bharat” when Prime Minister Modi himself wielded a
broom and swept the dirty streets of New Delhi. The people responded to his
clarion call to join him in this endeavour to give a fitting tribute to Mahatma
Gandhi, who wanted to make sanitation a priority for India more than a century
ago. The campaign aims to end the wide-spread practice of open defecation,
build more toilets and improve waste management, among other goals.
While underlining the importance of cleanliness, the Prime
Minister has often said that the idea of Swachh Bharat has nothing to do with
politics, as it is inspired by patriotism. One is reminded of Gandhi’s saying
that “Sanitation is more important than independence.”
While the father of the nation championed the cause of
self-service in cleanliness and end the despicable practice of untouchability,
the movement faltered after his death. Though several programmes were
undertaken since then by several governments, it is a sad commentary that the
twin issues of sanitation and untouchability continue to haunt the country even
almost 70 years after Bapu’s death.
Poor sanitation leads to several health-related diseases and
untimely deaths. A charity organization “WaterAid” had painted a grim situation
in one of its reports in 2014. It had then reported that less than a third of
India’s 1.2 billion people had access to sanitation and more than 186,000
children under the age of five used to die every year from diarrhoeal diseases
caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.
It has its economic pitfalls also. It is estimated that the country is
losing 6.4 percent of GDP annually as poor access to sanitation results in
diseases and deaths. But all that is set to change now as various government agencies
are working on war footing to meet the challenge.
Quoting the World Health Organization, the Prime Minister
has said in the past that an average of Rs. 6,500 per person is lost in India
due to lack of cleanliness and hygiene. He said Swachh Bharat would therefore
make a significant impact on public health, and in safeguarding income of the
poor, ultimately contributing to the national economy. He said sanitation
should not be seen as a political tool, but should only be connected to
patriotism (rashtrabhakti) and commitment to public health.
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which carried out a
survey to estimate the cost of benefits of the Swachh Bharat Mission, has in a
recent report said one rupee invested in improving sanitation helps save Rs
4.30. It said that each household could save Rs. 50,000 every year if there is
Open Defecation Free society because the medical costs will come down, the
value of time savings and the value of mortality will be averted. It also said
the benefits are highest for the poorest quantile of the population.
But to make the programme successful, the Modi government
will need to redouble efforts to create more awareness and educate people to
change their age-old attitudes towards hygiene and purity. There is still
widespread belief in the hinterland that it is unclean to defecate inside and
that only “untouchable” low cases should deal with excrement.
Until and unless there is a change in the mindset of the
people, the programme can’t be a success. The government and business houses
may construct toilets, but one needs to draw people out from the open fields to
the confines of a toilet in order to realize the full health and economic
benefits of sanitation. In the interiors, a large section of the people still prefers
open defecation even though they have functional toilets at home. This is
because they consider it to be more comfortable and convenient. In such a
scenario, there is an urgent need to educate people through awareness campaigns
to help eliminate such negative notions. The success of the programme will be
largely dependent on people’s participation. It is therefore imperative that
people rise to the occasion to make India clean and healthy.
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