INTRODUCTION
India is an ancient civilisation and considered as a very spritual as well as holy country.The people of India are very religious and India has followers of all religions like Hinduism, Islam, Christiniaty, Buddhism, Sikh ets.Unfortunately all the cleanilessness and piousness is exhibited in religious activities and kitchens.To make India a clean as well as beautiful nation , Our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched Swatch Bharat Abhiyaan on 2nd Oct. 2014 at Rajghat , New Delhi. Government launched Swatch Bharat Abhiyaan with a mission aimed to achieve an ” Open -defecation free” (OFD) India by 2nd Oct 2019, the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi through construction of toilets.Government of India clearly clarified that success of this program is not only the responsibility of Government of India but each and every citizen of India.
Folloing is the official website: https://swachhbharatmission.gov.in/
Phases of Swatch Bharat Abhiyaan
Government of India promoted this compaign in following two phases:-
Firstly Phase 1 of the Swatch Bharat Mission concluded till October 2019.
Correspondingly Government is implementing phase 2 between 2020–21 and 2024–25 to help bridge the gap of work of Phase 1.
Objective of Swatch Bharat Abhiyaan
Government of India launched Swatch Bharat Abhiyan basically with a mission to make India clean by 2nd Oct 2019, which is 150th birth anniversary of Father of nation Mahatma Gandhi.Government of India declared that this compaign should be taken “Beyond politics “ and “Inspired by Patriotism”. Following are some points as an objective of Swach Bharat Abhiyaan:-
1.To remove system of manual Scavanging.
2.To convert insanitary toilets into pour flush toilets.
3.To eradicate the system of open defecation in India.
4.To restructure the urban local bodies strong in order to design, execute and operate all systems related to cleanliness.
5.To bring awareness among people of healthy sanitation practices by bringing behavioral changes in people.
6.To link people with the programmes of sanitation and public health in order to generate public awareness.
Additional objectives:-
a).To provide required environment for the private sectors to get participated in the Capital Expenditure for all the operations and maintenance costs related to the clean campaign.
b).To completely start the scientific processing, disposals reuse and recycling the Municipal Solid Waste.
c).Not only latrine construction,but the Swachh Bharat Mission also made an initiative of establishing an accountable mechanism of monitoring latrine use.
d).Proper, dedicated ground staff recruited to bring about behavioural change as well as promotion of latrine use.
e).Villages to be kept clean with both Solid and Liquid Waste Management.
f).To provide toilets to all Anganwadis
Gandhi Ji and Cleanliness
Cleanliness was a major part of Mahatma Gandhi ji life. He was very concerned about cleanliness of public places like gardens, temples, roads, streets and specially Harijan colonies. After coming back from South Africa when he saw the attitude of countrymen towards cleanliness, he himself took the responsibility to create awareness among people to clean the places and making the country filth free. To encourage people to participate in cleaning drive Gandhi ji himself used to take broom in hand and used to clean the locality and even he will not hesitate to clean the toilets. Gandhi ji and his volunteers used to visit villages and harijan bastis to talk about necessity of sanitation, about keeping their places clean and about person hygiene. Gandhi ji used to write articles about the importance of Hygiene in his newspaper Harijan.
Facts and figure about Swacth Bharat Abhiyaan:-
Following are the facts and figures captured in phase I :-
1.Government made more than 5 lakhs villages ODF ie. Open Defecation Free, under the compaign.
2.Government made additional 4465 villages ODF across Namani Gange Initiative
3.After the launch of this compaign Government made around 90 million household toilets.
4.This compaign increased the household toilet coverage in India to 96.55% in first phase of this program compared to 38.70% in Oct.2014.
5.Government made 540 states and all the states ODF under this scheme.
6.Under the Swach Bharat Abhiyaan, 750Lakhs people uploaded their photographs since october 2014.
Selected Public Figures and Brand Ambessodors:-
More than 12crore school students, 12 crore Government employees, 6.25lakhs volunteers, 3lakh panchayat leaders, lakhs of public and 50 celebrities participated in this movement.Narendra Modi nominated following 9 well known people to join Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan on the day of launch of this compaign.Furthermore he requested them to nominate further 9people people as a part of this compaighn and make it viral.
Here is the list of PM’s nominees:-
1.Yog Guru baba Ramdev
2.Cricket Legend sachin Tendulkar
3.Actor Kamal Hasan
4.Goa Governor Mridula Sinha
5.Congress lawmaker and former Union Minister Shashi tharoor
6.Industrialist Anil Ambani
7.Actress Priyanka Chopra
8.Actor Salman Khan
9.Team of popular TV serial Tarak Mehta ka Oolta Chasma
Other celebrities involved in Swachh Bharat mission are Akshay Kumar, Alia Bhatt, Legendary actor Amitabh Bacchan, Anupam Kher,Indian Shooter Gagan Narang, Film maker Subhash Ghai,Actor Amir khan,Hritik roshan,Stand up comedian Kapil sharma,Manisha Koirala, Indian badminton player Saina Nehwal, Writer in Hindi Literature and Politician Mridula Sinha and many more.
Conclusion
‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ or ‘Clean India Mission’ is the best tribute that we Indian can give to Mahatma Gandhi. The initiative developed a sense of responsibility among pepople of India and people have started to take active participation to clean the area around them and public places . People from all walks of life have become sincere and motivate others also to make Swach Bharat Abhiyaan a big success. The drive has taken the face of a national movement and people are joining hands to clean their surroundings and environment.The Clean India Mission is not only the responsibility of the government but it needs the unanimous support of its people to achieve its goal.If people continues to actively keep the areas clean , days are not far away when India will be the cleanest country of the world.