The Government of India had launched “Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban)” on 2nd October, 2014 with the following objectives:-

(i) Eliminate open defecation,

(ii) Conversion of insanitary toilets to pour flush toilets,

(iii) Eradication of manual scavenging,

(iv) 100% collection and scientific processing/disposal reuse/recycle of Municipal Solid Waste,

(v) To bring about a behavioral change in people regarding healthy sanitation practices,

(vi) Generate awareness among the citizens about sanitation and its linkages with public health.

(vii) Strengthening of urban local bodies to design, execute and operate systems,

(viii) To create enabling environment for private sector participation in Capital Expenditure and Operation & Maintenance (O&M) costs.

The Mission has following components:-

(i) Construction of Household Toilets,

(ii) Community and Public Toilets,

(iii) Solid Waste Management,

(iv) Information, Education & Communication (IEC) and Public Awareness,

(v) Capacity Building and Administrative & Office Expenses (A&OE).

ROLE OF LOCAL BODIES:

  • Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) also play a strategic role in creating awareness and imparting hygiene education among the local population.
  • Initiatives under Information, Education and Communication (IEC) which have been taken up to improve rural participation in the SBM (Gramin)
  1. include enhancing the budget for IEC activities,
  2. implementation of Sanitation and Hygiene Advocacy and Communication Strategy Framework (2012-17), which provides a framework to States to develop State-specific Action Plans for rolling out of advocacy and
  3. communication activities related to the Programme;
  4. involvement of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Village Level Motivators (SwachhataDoots/Sanitation Managers), field functionaries like Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), Anganwadi Workers, School Teachers, and Bharat Nirman Volunteers to carry out field level activities.
  • SBM (G) also has a provision for ‘Social Audit’ for continuous and comprehensive public vigilance of the programme.

SWACHH SURVKEKSHAN

  • SwachhSurvekshan is a ranking exercise taken up by the Government of India to assess rural and urban areas for their levels of cleanliness and active implementation of Swachhata mission initiatives in a timely and innovative manner.
  • The objective of the survey is to encourage large scale citizen participation and create awareness amongst all sections of society about the importance of working together towards making towns and cities a better place to live in. Additionally, the survey also intends to foster a spirit of healthy competition among towns and cities to improve their service delivery to citizens, towards creating cleaner cities and towns.
  • The Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India takes up the SwachhSurvekshan in urban areas and the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in rural areas.
  • The Quality Council of India (QCI) has been commissioned the responsibility of carrying out the assessment.

SWACHH SURVEKSHAN – URBAN

SwachhSurvekshan 2016

The SwachhSurvekshan was launched in January 2016 to assess the sanitation and solid waste management status in 73 major cities in India (comprising 40% of India’s total urban population) – including 53 cities with a population of above 10 lakhs each, and state capitals.

Top 10 cleanest cities include Mysuru (Karnataka), Chandigarh, Tiruchirappalli (Tamil Nadu) and NDMC area of the national capital, Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Surat (Gujarat), Rajkot (Gujarat), Gangtok (Sikkim), Pimpri-Chindwad (Maharashtra) and Greater Mumbai (Maharashtra).

SwachhSurvekshan 2017

‘Swachh Suvekshan-2017’ to assess and rank 500 cities and towns based on levels of sanitation and efforts made by respective urban local bodies and also to capture progress towards achieving ‘Open Defecation Free’ status has been launched during August 2016.

Indore has emerged as the India’s Cleanest City in the Swachh Survekshan-2017 conducted in 434 cities and towns, the results of which were announced by the Ministry of Urban Development

Bhopal, Visakhapatnam, Surat, Mysuru, Tiruchirapally, New Delhi Municipal Council, Navi Mumbai, Vadodara and Chandigarh are among the Top 10 clean cities in that order.

10 towns that came at the bottom of the 434 surveyed are; Gonda (UP) ranked 434 followed by Bhusawal (Maharashtra), Bagaha (Bihar)- 433, Hardoi (UP)-432, Katihar (Bihar)-431, Bahraich (UP)-429, Muktsar (Punjab)-427, Muktsar (Punjab)-426 and Khurja (UP)-425..

Of the total score of 2,000, 900 marks were assigned for performance in respect of ODF and solid waste management, 600 marks for Citizen Feedbak and 500 marks for Independent Observation.

Quality Council of India that conducted the survey during January-February this

SWACHH SURVEKSHAN – RURAL (GRAMIN)

The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation commissioned the first SwachhSurvekshan for rural India during May 2016. A total of 22 hill districts and 53 plain areas were assessed.

Each district has been judged on four distinct parameters. Maximum weightage was placed on accessibility to safe toilets and water. The parameters to judge sanitation status include:

  • Households having access to safe toilets and using them (toilet usage, water accessibility, safe disposal of waste) (40%)
  • Households having no litter around (30%)
  • Public places with no litter in the surrounding (10%)
  • Households having no stagnant wastewater around (20%)

Mandi was judged as the cleanest district in “Hills” category and Sindhudurg as the cleanest in the “Plains” category, with districts of Sikkim, Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), Nadia (West Bengal) and Satara (Maharashtra) featuring at the top of the index.

HOW FAR HAS IT BEEN SUCCESSFUL ?

SBM is the project which primarily focuses on elimination of open defecation in the nation by 2019.

ACHIEVEMENTS

  • rural sanitation coverage having gone up from 39% to 67% in three years
  • use of media and campaigns like “DarwazaBandh” have led to behavior change and public awareness of the need for sanitation.
  • The Swachh Bharat urban and rural projects have set-off healthy competition among cities and districts. Self-help groups, NGOs and popular icons have pitched in and the results are showing in the form of a record number of sustainable toilets, open defecation-free towns, schools with gender specific toilets and decrease in water borne diseases in ODF villages and towns
  • Making functional toilets a compulsory qualification for contesting panchayat elections in Haryana and Rajasthan shows the determination to achieve the dream
  • In terms of quantity of toilets constructed, SwachhVidyalayAbhiyan is a success.
  • People are coming with ideas to contribute to the mission
  • The dropout rate of females from schools and colleges is decreasing and those that had left have come to school after construction of toilets.
  • The spread of communicable diseases has seen a downward trend in villages that have performed well in SBM. Faeces in groundwater spread encephalitis, an annual post-monsoon scourge, diarrhoea stunts children and adults and underweight mothers produce babies prone to sickness. The cycle is lethal.
  • Of 73 cities that participated in SwachhSurvekshan 2016, 54 cities have improved their score in overall municipal solid waste management in 2017

SHORTCOMINGS

  • Swachha Bharat Kosh, a fund created for SBM programs hasn’t taken off well.
  • Private participation by way of CSR is less as interested private companies do not have detailed project report.
  • Most of the money is going towards latrine construction, and very little towards information, education, and communication.
  • The methodology adopted to collect data for the SwachhSurvekshan Report is not credible.
  • No Proper facilities for disposal of excreta
  • Mission is still Struggling in bringing behavioral changes in rural population

WAY FORWARD

  • Periodic assessment about toilet construction and success at panchayat level with social audit + rewarding panchayats for making villages ODF
  • Making potable water available, building water infratructure so that toilets are used for defecation purpose and not as storehouse
  • After GST, Swachh Bharat Cess gone. Creating new methods to finance SBM
  • Preventing construction of unsanitary latrines and demotion of existing unsanitary latrines => preventing manual scavenging (poor impact on health and dignity) => abolition of manual scanvanging must be linked to SBM
  • Using SBM for furthering social reforms like prohibition of alcoholism, domestic violence etc
  • So far, the QCI has measured toilets built, usage, ODF and structural issues such as sewage systems and solid waste removal systems. As these achieve usage at scale, we should also measure behaviour changes. Pouring concrete alone won’t solve the problems of public hygiene. The combination of a people’s movement and the force multipliers of infrastructure readiness and impact measurement can deliver results very quickly.
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