Dr Jaipal Singh
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan – Dream of Mahatama Gandhi Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is also called as the Clean India Mission or Clean India drive or Swachh Bharat Campaign. It is implemented on the birth anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi as he had dreamed and was very keen to make this country a clean country. He had tried for clean India in his time by motivating people through his campaigns and slogans however could not achieve much because of the partial involvement of the people of the country of that era.
To complete this vision of the Father of Nation, Indian Government decided to launch this campaign as Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan as a biggest ever cleanliness drive of India. During the launch of this campaign around three million government employees and students from different schools and colleges took active participation with great fervour and zeal.
This campaign was officially launched by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on 145th Birth Anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi i.e. on 2nd of October 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi and immediately thereafter, practicing it, by wielding broom with NDMC workers at Valmiki Basti in New Delhi. The government of India has aimed to make India a clean India by 2nd of October 2019 (means 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi) through this campaign.
PM Modi nominated nine celebrities, asking them to nominate nine more people to make the initiative go viral. These included Goa Governor Mridula Sinha, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, yoga guru Baba Ramdev, Congress lawmaker and former union minister Shashi Tharoor, industrialist Anil Ambani, actors Kamal Hasan, Priyanka Chopra and Salman Khan and the team of popular TV serial Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah.
The Prime Minister also requested the people of India to involve themselves wholeheartedly in the Swachh Bharat Mission and encourage others so that our country may be at top of the world in the cleanliness ranking. People across the country joined this social Abhiyaan to fulfil the dreams of Mahatama Gandhi.
This dream which PM Modi made its mission through its highly intellect vision and endeavour. Surely, it is the real necessity of the time, looking in and around us the poorest sanitation condition of our villages and cities throughout the country both in rural and urban areas.
Mission aims at : Eradication of manual scavenging, elimination of open defecation by constructing toilets for households, communities, enable private sector participation in the sanitation sector. Changing people mind set by creating awareness among them for proper sanitation and the most challenging task of collecting, dumping and destroying the waste material of homes and industries without pollution at the outskirts by using the most modern scientific methods/ techniques/ equipments/ plants besides cleanliness of pious rivers, like Ganga, of the country.
In this direction, nearly 25-30 per cent of the overall set plan(target), for these two years is achieved and much is yet needed to be done in all spheres. e.g A total of 31.83 lakh toilets were built between April 2014 and January 2015 under this campaign, which is 25.4 per cent of the target for 2014-15 . Over the next 5 years, the government plans to invest nearly Rs 2 lakh crore to construct 12 crore toilets across India.
The ambitious campaign has its fair share of challenges too. An impact assessment study conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) revealed that toilets built in rural areas are lying unused, as the villagers are not of the habit of using them properly.
A government survey shows Delhi as one of the dirtiest Indian cities with rampant open defecation and poor waste management facilities, indicating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat mission might not have had a big impact in Delhi. On the other hand, the city of Mysuru in Karnataka was named as the cleanest city in India after the launch of Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
It is well said “Good start – Half done”. PM Modi started it as a mission with passion but people of the country should made cleanliness their passion to make country clean, green and paradise on the earth in the largest interst of themselves, nation and coming generations.
(The author is NSS Programme officer of Govt. Degree College- R.S.Pura.)
