Swachh Bharat Abhiyan – in Gramin/Rural Areas

The central Government of India has launched many schemes time to time to eradicate the problem of open defecation completely from rural areas. These schemes include Central Rural Sanitation Program in 1986, Total Sanitation Campaign in 1999, Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan in 2012 and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014.

All these mentioned Schemes of the Central government were focused at completely removing open defecation from rural and urban areas by constructing sufficient amount of toilets to maintain proper hygiene especially in rural areas.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was launched on 2^nd October 2014 by then Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi in the presence of other respected and important personalities. It is usually called that Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is just a replacement of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan. Like previous Campaigns, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was also aimed at maintaining proper sanitation and hygiene in both, rural and urban areas of the country.

The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was further divided in two sub-categories as “Swachh Bharat Mission (Rural/Gramin) and Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban/Shahari). As their name suggest, Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) would be applicable in rural areas only whereas the Swachh Bharat Mission would focus on urban areas.

Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin Areas

Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin is also abbreviated as ‘SBM-G’. As said before, Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) is mainly focused in Gramin or rural areas of the nation and would focus on making them open defecation free by 2^nd October 2019. During the last 3 census in India, it was observed that the percentage of households with toilets in rural areas is very less as compared to the houses with toilets in urban areas and can be considered one of the major reasons for increased open defecation in rural areas.

Objective of Swachh Bharat Mission for Gramin Areas

Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) is a good initiative of government of India towards the sanitation of the rural areas for which the guidelines are released by the “Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation”. As per directed by the Ministry, there are four primary goals which the scheme Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) works on.

• The primary focus of Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) is to completely eliminate open defecation from the villages. Indian rural areas are the center of open defecation and these are the places most the people exercise it. Open defecation is not always volunteer but sometimes it may be because of lack of proper toilet in the houses but the ratio of such people very small as compared to those who find to comfortable to exercise open defecation and choose it voluntarily. A village free from open defecation will have a fresh and healthy environment which will help the people to change their life-style and live with proper hygiene.
• Panchayati Raj Institutions and Communities are the reflection of the village and their living standard so Government has also decided to bring sanitation and proper hygiene in their regular practice so that it will be easily transferred to the people in the village. To motivate these communities and Panchayati Raj to adopt the cleanliness for their better health is like to motivate the whole village altogether.

• Sometimes the villages’ lack proper technology which is not their fault still they suffer to live an unhealthy life. The government also has a solution of it and has decided to provide villages the adequate technologies that will be helpful for them to live with sustainable sanitation.
• There is a huge problem of wastes in the rural areas. Most of the villages in India do not have proper arrangement to dispose their solid and liquid wastes. It is an unavoidable problem and government has also made it one of its primary focuses to develop community managed solid and liquid waste management system.

Apart from these, government also works on other aspects like the complete removal of manual scavenging by providing proper technology, Scientific Management of all kind of household wastes, providing training for practices of healthy sanitation, to spread awareness among people regarding sanitation and its benefits etc. These will equally help people to grow their health and live a disease free life.

Institutional Framework of Swachh Bharat Mission for Gramin Areas

Swachh Bharat Mission is a commendable step of government of India but the first complication against it was to implement it in such a village based country which ranks 2^nd in the world by population. Its successful implementation was not less than a challenge for the Central Government.

The Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) has a five level based implementation mechanism as discussed below:

1. National Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin)
2. State Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin)
3. District Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin)
4. Block Program Management Unit
5. Gram Panchayat/Village and Water Sanitation Committee

An implementation plan will be created at state, district, Gram Panchayat and Block level each. All the implementation plans will be sent to State Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) for further consolidation. Now the state implementation plan is reviewed and approved by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation and finally the funds are allocated based on final plan.

Importance of Swachh Bharat Mission for Rural Areas

It is clear beyond doubt that the proper hygiene is the basic need, right and demand of very citizen. Cleanliness is interlinked with the health and development of the people of the nation. Eradication of open defecation from the villages will remove a biggest obstacle in the path of the success of India. It will provide a land for farming, gardening or manufacture. The piece of land which was previously used for defecation will now be used for productive services.

Also the people in rural areas are oblivious about the cleanliness and proper hygiene just like neutral regarding a proper arrangement of a household Toilet. The most of the children in rural areas become victims of many infectious diseases or epidemic or some kind of disability and these happens only because lack of sanitation. The sanitation trainings and knowledge will bring awareness in them regarding cleanliness and will help in establishing a healthy and happy life.

Government has also planned to provide financial support to those who are willing to construct a toilet in their houses but can’t do only because of lack of fund.

The government is all set to support people from every manner to eradicate the problem of poor sanitation of India but can’t be achieved by the government alone. It needs our support and will only be possible then. So let’s step ahead and participate in this campaign to make our village, open defecation free, dirt free and disease free. It is said that,

“Cleanliness is Next to Godliness”.

Success of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in Gramin/Rural Areas

The Swachh Bharat was undoubtedly needed in rural areas in India and its success can also be seen clearly. According to many surveys and data provided by the government, the rural areas in India are provided with about 10 crore toilets under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Also the main goal of making Indian villages was almost achieved because about 6 lakh of villages were declared open defecation free under this campaign. In the field of waste management, the provided says that 63.3% of the whole rural population is practicing Solid Liquid Waste Management.

People in villages are seen to come forward and participate in cleanliness drive by taking a step ahead to construct their own household toilets. The people in villages are also working on ‘waste to compost’ which will turn their wastes in useful composts after few days and they won’t need to buy extra compost from the around markets. The Swachh Bharat Mission will only be successful when we will actively participate in it. It is a mission by us and for us so let’s promote cleanliness and gift it to our future generations.

More on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan:

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: An Initiative for Pollution/Garbage Free Diwali this Year

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Success Stories of Few Villages/Cities

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Activities, Challenges, Success

Swachh Bharat Mission: Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Need and Importance

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Brand Ambassadors

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Single Use Plastic Ban

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: in Urban Areas