The environment is the surrounding of an organism. This environment in which we organism survive is made up of various elements like air, water, land etc. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is one of the most prior campaigns granted for prevention and to volunteer this environment.
The elements are found in a fixed amount in the environment to create a materialistic balance in the environment for an organism to live and sustain in. With the rise of industrialization and urbanization, there has been a regular and drastic increase in hygienic issues, leading to the pollution level increase.
Swatch Bharat Abhiyan
Our Father of Nation and the one who laid the foundation stone of independence, Mahatma Gandhi “Bapu”, said the words “Sanitation is more important than Independence”. “A clean India would be the best tribute India could pay to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150 birth anniversary in 2019,” said Shri Narendra Modi as he launched the Swachh Bharat Mission at Rajpath in New Delhi.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, known as “Clean India Campaign” is one of the most significant sanitation campaigns in history in India led by Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Gandhi Jayanti. On 2 October 2014, Narendra Modi launched this nationwide campaign aiming to clean up the country in the next 5 years. He believed that Bapu not only fought for independence but also for a clean country. Initiated by the Government of India, the mission aimed to achieve a “Defecation Free India” by 2nd October 2019, i.e. 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
The campaign was divided into 2 phases:
- The 1st phase, lasted till October 2019, missioned to eradicate manual scavenging, creating awareness on hygiene and to bring a change in behaviour regarding sanitation and hygiene.
- It was said to be SBA-Urban.
- It was overseen by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs.
- The 2nd phase was implemented on 4th March 2020, to lasted till 2024-25, will focus on sustaining the 1st phase very well in terms of toilet access and usage, and remove solid-liquid waste. The mission has a total outlay of Rs.1,40,881 crore.
- It is said to be SBA-Grameen.
- It’s being financed by Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation.
It is India’s largest cleanliness drive to date with almost 3 million government employees and students from all over India participating in 4,000 cities, towns, and capitals. In Champaran during a rally, the Prime Minister designated the campaign of cleanliness as, “Satyagrah se Swachhagrah”, about Gandhiji’s Champaran Satyagrah.
Structural Modelling:
While leading the mass movement for sanitation, the PM encouraged people to fulfil Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of a clean and hygienic India. Shri Narendra Modi himself picked up the broom to clean the dirt, making Swachh Bharat Abhiyan a mass national movement. He gave the mantra of ‘Na gandagi karenge, Na karne denge.’ Shri Narendra Modi openly lauded the participation of people via social media and physical participation. The ‘#MyCleanIndia’ was also launched simultaneously as a part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to highlight the cleanliness work carried out by citizens of India.
Shri Narendra Modi also invited various people to join the cleanliness drive and requested each of them to draw more into the movement. By inviting people to participate in the campaign, the Abhiyan had turned into a National Movement. A sense of responsibility had been provoked among the people through the Clean India Movement. Citizens now becoming an active participant in cleanliness activities across the nation, the dream of a ‘Clean India’ once seen by Mahatma Gandhi has begun to get a shape.
An outlook of SBA:
Open defecation and water pollution have been an endemic sanitary problem in India since years. In 2014, India was the country with the highest number of people practising open defecation, around 500 million people.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan aimed to remove open defecation by 2 October 2019, the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, by constructing over 90 million toilets in rural India at a cost of Rs. 1.96 lakh crore. The national campaign spanned 4,000 statutory cities and towns all over the nation.
India has made rapid progress in open defecation across the country which is having a huge impact on improving Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH). The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) has changed the behaviour of hundreds of millions of people concerning toilet access and its usage.
Around 500 million people have stopped defecating in the open since 2014, down from 550 million to less than 50 million today. Clean India can inevitably boost international tourism thereby, adding to the country’s growth in every aspect. The campaign has just started and will last until years, just the citizens are required to put in efforts.
No matter how successfully our economy booms; if the country is not clean at
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Promotional Campaigns:
Many brand ambassadors were selected as public figures for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan:
2014: PM Modi selected the following figures to propagate this campaign all over:
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- Sachin Tendulkar
- Priyanka Chopra
- Salman Khan
- Vidya Balan
- Amitabh Bachhan
- Mridula Sinha
- Virat Kohli
- M.S. Dhoni
- Akhilesh Yadav
- Manoj Tiwari
- Sourav Ganguly
- Kiran Bedi
- Deviprasad Dwivedi
- Kailash Kher
- Manisha Koirala
2015: On 5th January 2015, the Minister-in-charge nominated following Telgu icons as brand ambassadors:
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- Rajyogini
- Pawan Kalyan
- P. Bala Subramanyam
- V. K. Reddy
- Gopichand
- Galla Jayadev
- Akshay Kumar
- Lakshmi Manchu
2017 onwards: From later dates, the following icons & celebs were nominated as ambassadors:
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- Sanjay Dutt
- Juhi Chawla
- Shilpa Shetty
- Raveena Tandon
- Shah Rukh Khan
- D. P. Sharma
Impacts of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan:
A recent WHO report based on the results of the monitoring study of SBA-G & SBA-U indicates that the mission averted up to 500,000 deaths due to diarrheal diseases and protein-energy malnutrition with 300,000 lives saved annually.
Along with ensuring human lives, there are also significant financial gains from the mission. According to the survey titled “The Financial & Economic Impact of SBM in India 2017”, designed by the UNICEF, and estimated that on an average of Rs. 50,000 per year for savings in medical expenditure due to lower illness & less income loss due to sick leave.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has become a ‘Jan Andolan’ receiving auspicious support from the people, not only in India but across various countries over the globe. Citizens too have turned out in large numbers and pledged for a neat and cleaner India. Taking the broom to sweep the streets, cleaning up the garbage, focusing on sanitation and maintaining a hygienic environment have become a practice after the launch of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
People have started to take part and are helping spread the message of ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness.’ Swachh Bharat Abhiyan created major impacts on health, wealth, mental peace, and awareness. There had been almost 65% increase in every field with respect to strategies of previous studies.
Impact of Covid 19 on SBA:
The COVID-19 lock-down has shown us how quickly nature gives us back our clean air. It is for us to seize this opportunity to keep our lungs clean and safe. The strong efforts of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan with its outstanding work in behavioural change regarding hygiene and washing must continue and in addition look at the treatment of sewage.
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Swachh Bharat Mission goals:
According to a report by Economic Times, the Corona-virus pandemic helped to develop a sanitation and clean environment to sustain and live in. The outbreak of the pandemic, which has severely impacted the economy and livelihoods, however, has helped achieve some Swachh Bharat Mission goals in many ways.
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Personal Sanitation:
The government spent nearly Rs 4,000 crore under SBA towards information, education and communication to promote personal hygiene. But a strong behavioural change happened to post the Covid-19 outbreak when people thought ways to avoid getting infected by maintaining personal hygiene and social distancing.
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Industrial Knock:
Companies spanning sectors like pharmacy, liquor and paints launched, in this pandemic time, a wide range of hygiene products such as hand washes, sanitizers, female hygiene products, face masks and surface sanitizers to cater to a sudden demand surge.
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Institutional Change:
Companies are taking a wide area of precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus at workplaces, from having most employees work from home to the changes made in office design work. The pandemic is changing the way companies are functioning and undertaking their cost structures of work.
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Common Place:
The need for social distancing and personal hygiene is going to bring about several structural changes right from now to the next few years after. The new institutional practices are likely to remain in place for a longer period of time.
Swachh Survekshan:
Swachh Survekshan is an annual survey of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation in cities and towns across India. It was launched as a subsidy of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which aimed to make India clean and free of open defecation by 2 October 2019.
The first survey was held in 2016 and covering over 73 cities & by 2020 the survey had grown to cover around 4242 cities and was said to be the largest cleanliness survey in the world. The surveys are carried out by the Quality Council of India.
The survey is carried out by the Quality Council of India, which included almost 5 Lakhs+ ULB Document Evidence captured,24 Lakhs+Geo tagged Photos captured from field and feedback from 1.9 crore people in India.
Indore has been regularly ranked 1st in Swachh Survekshan since 2016. In 2016, Tiruchirapalli was ranked 2nd cleanest city followed by Chandigarh. In 2020, Surat is ranked in 2nd position followed by Navi Mumbai.
Conclusion:
The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is one of the most productive and essential steps taken by Govt. of India & Narendra Modi after coming to the office. Whole nation supports Swachh Bharat Abhiyan at its best. Rural & Urban areas will definitely be getting a substantial boost through this campaign.