Swachh Bharat remains a dream as India continues to submerge in

heaps of garbage, dust and pollution

Shaubhik Das, PGP34182

To answer the question whether Swachh Bharat (Clean India) is a dream or reality, we first need
to define what does Swachh Bharat actually mean. The meaning can be as broad as one that
includes sanitation, garbage dumping, clean water, clean air, clean food, corruption-free
government, etc., or it may also mean simply mean only one or two aspects from amongst
those mentioned earlier. But generally, Swachh Bharat immediately brings to mind the Swachh
Bharat Mission initiated by the NDA government.

The Swachh Bharat Mission was one of the flagship programs of NDA government which was
flagged off on 2nd October, 2014. The goal of the mission is to achieve a clean India with 5 years,
i.e., on 2nd October, 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The parameters
which will decide the cleanliness of a city or town or village were however very much specific
and clear. The objectives of the mission were not to make India all clean, but were targeted
towards certain aspects of cleanliness such as elimination of open defection, eradication of
manual scavenging, use of modern and scientific solid waste management, affecting behavioral
changes regarding healthy sanitation practices, etc. The Mission was carried out in two parts –
rural (under Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation) and urban (under Ministry of Housing
and Urban Affairs)

If we strictly adhere to the objectives of the mission, we must say government has done a great
deal of work in the rural areas at least. In the last four years, the government has built nearly
nine crore toilets and declared 530 districts as ‘Open Defection Free’ (ODF). The increase in
number of households with toilet since 2nd October, 2014 is 57.51%. The results are also
verified through photographs taken by mobile cameras. The overall impact can be understood
by the fact that the number of Individual Household Latrine (IHHL) applications in rural areas
increased from 38.70% in 2014 to 96.21% in 2018. The government spent a lot of budget on
advertisement as well, which has definitely contributed to raising awareness towards health
and sanitation in rural areas. However, when it comes to development of scientific waste
management system, government is yet to do considerable amount of job.

The urban India hasn’t however seen much of an improvement, especially if we compare with
that of rural India. This is also because open-defection is primarily a problem of rural India. Even
though, sanitation is also an issue in urban areas. As of now, 22% of cities in India are Open
Defection Free, 50% of households have 100% door-to-door garbage collection facility. 90%+
schools in urban India now have separate toilet facilities for girls which is 37% more than when
Swachh Bharat Mission was launched. However, it is still unknown know of these are functional
as of now. Thought not insignificant, the figures of Swachh Bharat Mission in urban India is not
as impressive as in rural India. Also, the cities and towns of India suffer from far more serious
problems such as lack of clean air and water.

If we look at the numbers achieved by the mission overall, whatever the government has done
is quite impressive. But the problems in India, which is home to world’s second highest number
of population are so vast and deep that it seems insignificant. According to the reports received
after Diwali, New Delhi, the capital of India is the most polluted city in world. The Clean Air
Index of most of Indian cities is really bad. Although garbage collection system is there is cities,
the treatment of wastes is not done properly in most pf the cities. Coming to rural India,
although the toilets have been built, there is far more challenges that the government is yet to
face to bring about behavioral changes in the lifestyle of rural India in order to make the
mission successful in real sense. Again, a lot of villages in India are not having proper water
facilities so that they can effectively use the toilets built. All these have been ignored by the
government in its reports. The water quality of the major rivers of India such as the Ganga and
the Yamuna deteriorating day by day. The majority of the population are dependent on
vegetables produced through excessive use of fertilizers which pose hazardous health risks to
the population.

In conclusion, we can say that the Clean India Mission is a great step taken by the NDA
government and will act as a means and not the end towards achieving a much broader goal of
actually cleaning India from all perspectives.