The Ministry of Jal Shakti announced the Clean India Green India or Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to speed up efforts to attain universal sanitation coverage and to focus on sanitation. It is one of the biggest initiatives ever undertaken in India's history and realises Mahatma Gandhi's aspirations for a healthy and disease-free India. It was launched on October 2, 2014.
The goal of the mission was to end open defecation in rural areas through the implementation of a national campaign/Janandolan.
After completing the first phase of Clean India Green India, the government began the second phase in 2021 with the intention of achieving additional objectives by 2023-2024.
Objectives of Clean India Green India
The programme covers the eradication of manual scavenging, the conversion of unhygienic toilets to pour flush toilets, the eradication of open defecation, municipal solid waste management, and changing people's attitudes toward good sanitation practices.
In residential locations where it is challenging to build individual household toilets, community restrooms will be constructed as part of the initiative.
The nation's residents are being reminded by the Clean India Mission to respect nature and not deface its beauty. Additionally, maintaining a clean and green environment is the exclusive responsibility of each and every individual. Together, we can effect change; apart, we can only think. In the end, it is the combined effort that matters. The mission needs to be a joint effort between the people and its government.
The two parts of the Clean India Green India mission are handled by two distinct departments. The country's urban areas are under the watchful eye of the Ministry of Home and Urban Affairs. The initiative is referred to as Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban. Sanitation coverage in rural areas is under the direction of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. The initiative is referred to as Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin.
Clean India Green India Mission- Urban for future
The first phase of the initiative, which was introduced in 2014, concentrated on eliminating open defecation, converting unhygienic toilets to flush toilets, eliminating manual scavenging, managing municipal solid waste, and changing people's attitudes toward good sanitation practices.
The project was updated with SBM-U 2.0, which aims to achieve safe sanitation in urban areas by making all cities "Garbage Free," ensuring grey and black water management in all cities besides those covered by , and making all urban local bodies as Open Defection Free+ and those with a population of less than 1 lakh as Open Defection Free++. The Mission will focus on source segregation of solid waste, sustainable sanitation, wastewater treatment, capacity building, Information, Education and Communication utilizing the principles of the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), scientific processing of all types of municipal solid waste and remediation of legacy dumpsites for effective solid waste management for the period 2021-22 to 2025-26.
Clean India Mission (Gramin)- U 2.0
Alongside the urban goal, the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) was introduced to ensure cleanliness in rural India to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) status there in five years. Through solid and liquid waste management initiatives and efforts to make Gram Panchayats Open Defecation Free (ODF), clean, and sanitised, it aims to raise the standard of cleanliness in rural regions.
The work on sanitation and the behaviour change campaign must continue to sustain the gains made under the programme, as well as to ensure that no one is left behind and the general cleanliness (Sampoorn Swachhata) in villages. In its first phase, the initiative reached the milestone of Open Defecation Free India in a time-bound manner in the last five years from 2014 to 2019.
The second phase was implemented in 2020 with a focus on the sustainability of open defecation status and solid and liquid waste management. (SLWM). It is the goal of SBM(G) Phase-II to serve as a groundbreaking illustration of convergence between various funding verticals and Central and State Government programmes. From 2020-21 through 2024-25, the programme will be run in mission mode.
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Clean India initiative in Schools
Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has started the Swachh Vidyalaya Program with the goal of installing separate restrooms for boys and females in all public schools within a year. Every school in the nation is required to have a set of fundamental interventions related to both technical and human development aspects of a good water, sanitation, and hygiene programme, according to the program's objectives. Under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, the Ministry provides financial help to States and Union Territories, among other things, to build bathrooms in schools for both boys and girls (RMSA).
Clean India Fund
The goal of Clean India (Swachh Bharat) is to accomplish by the year 2024, and the Clean India Fund, or Swachh Bharat Kosh (SBK), has been established to facilitate and channel corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding and individual philanthropic contributions. The Kosh will be utilised to accomplish the goal of raising the standard of cleanliness in both urban and rural regions, including schools. To supplement and complete departmental resources for such efforts, the Kosh allotment would be utilised. Modalities to offer tax refunds where they are possible are being studied as a way to encourage contributions from both people and corporations.
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Clean India Portal
Swachh Bharat, the clean India portal, was established to promote and support people in engaging in activities related to cleanliness. SwachhApp, an app that tracks the expansion of sanitation coverage in rural regions, was also introduced by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Anyone can view the number of toilets built in a specific location with the use of this app. As an incentive, Rs. 12,000 was given to eligible rural recipients who were building private household toilets on their own. This amount also covered the provisions for water storage.
Conclusion
According to Mahatma Gandhi, sanitation is more crucial than independence. If we reflect on the scenario in 2014, a project like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was urgently needed. It was becoming increasingly important to keep the environment clean, sanitary, and hygienic. Due to poor hygiene and malnutrition, young children were more likely to contract diseases like diarrhoea, cholera, etc. As a result, 1000 kids every day pass away from diarrheal diseases. According to a UN report, about 60% of Indians practise open defecation and are predisposed to bad health and fatal diseases.
Cleaning our lifestyle and eradicating contaminants from our surroundings are both aspects of cleanliness. Greenness and cleanliness are essential to the prosperity of every nation. Any country can draw tourists from other nations to come and experience the natural beauty and cleanliness there. Increasing tourism, not only boosts the nation's pride but also helps it financially. The government has started initiatives to promote cleanliness and the environment. However, it is now our duty to adhere to the appropriate procedures in our lives and support the sustainable development of our nation.