INTRODUCTION

Swacchta that is cleanliness is the abstract state of being

clean and the habit of achieving and maintaining that
state. Cleanliness may imply a moral quality, as indicated
by the aphorism "cleanliness is next to godliness", and
may be regarded as contributing to other ideals such as
health and beauty. As observed by Jacob
Burckhardt,"cleanliness is indispensable to our modern
notion of social perfection.” In Hinduism, cleanliness is an
important virtue and the Bhagavad Gita describes it as
one of the divine qualities which everyone must practice.
The Sanskrit word for cleanliness is 'Śaucam' and
interestingly, the Bhagavad Gita repeats this word in many
slokas. On a practical level, cleanliness is related to
hygiene and diseases prevention. When we talk about
hygiene and diseases then it is necessary to add drinking
water and sanitation with it. Without proper sanitation we
can’t keep our surroundings clean and prevent ourselves
from diseases. Around 1989, David Strachan put forth the
"hygiene hypothesis" in the British Medical Journal that
environmental microbes play a useful role in developing
the immune system; the fewer germs people are exposed
to in early childhood, the more likely they are to
experience health problems in childhood and as adults.
The valuation of cleanliness, therefore, has a social and
cultural dimension beyond the requirements of hygiene for
practical purposes. Mahatma Gandhi said “Sanitation is
more important than independence”. He made cleanliness
and sanitation an integral part of Gandhian way of living.
His dream was total sanitation for all. He use to
emphasize that cleanliness is most

important for physical wellbeing and a healthy

environment. Sanitation and drinking water in India has
always been the central issue. However, it continues to be
inadequate despite of the longstanding efforts by the
various levels of the government and communities to
improve the coverage. The rural sanitation program in
India was introduced in 1954 as a part of First Five Year
Plan of Government of India. The 1981 census revealed
that rural sanitation coverage was only 1%. The
government has begun giving emphasis on rural sanitation
after declaration of International Decade for Drinking water
and Sanitation during 1981-90. In 2015, 40% population
has access to improved sanitation, 63% in urban and 29%
in rural area. In 2008, 88% of population in India had
access to an improved water source but only 31% had
access to improved sanitation. In rural areas where 72%
of India’s population lives, the respective share is 84% for
water and 21% of sanitation. In the light of the above, on
2nd October, 2014, Prime Minister of India launched a
nationwide cleanliness campaign called Swachh Bharat
Mission. It is India’s largest ever cleanliness drive. The
objectives of Swachh Bharat are to reduce or eliminate
open defecation through construction of individual, cluster
and community toilets. The concept of SBM is to provide
sanitation facility to every family, including toilet, solid and
liquid waste disposal system, village cleanliness and safe
and adequate drinking water. Under the mission, nearly 10
crore toilets will be constructed by 2019. Since the launch
of SBM, nearly 2 crore toilets (nearly 20% of the target)
have been built. In order to accelerate the pace of work
and aspect of behavioral change, it was envisaged that
the CBOs/NGOs have to be associated in the

implementation of the mission in the rural area. They are

considered for active involvement in IEC activities
including demand generation, capacity building assistance
in construction and ensuring sustained use of facilities.
The SBM has made progress since it was launched in
2014. However, to be able to meet the enormous
challenge to making India ODF by 2019, the aspect of
behavioral change and inter personal communication have
to be accelerated. As a result of continuous efforts by the
government, CBOs/NGOs and communities, things are
moving in the right direction. During last one and half year
in India for the period 2014 to 2019 that aims to clean up
the streets, roads and infrastructure of many villages have
been declared ODF village.
 Experiences before Swachh Bharat
Abhiyan
A movement to keep the toilets and surroundings clean
reminds us of Mahatma Gandhi who started
changing the mindset against cleaning your toilets
yourself. He spread the message even at the cost of
offending his wife who felt that it was too demeaning a
task for her to carry out. Since then,cleanliness
movements have got momentum under different
nomen clatures formal sanitation programme
introduced in t h e y e a r 1 9 5 4 a s p a r t o f t h e
F i r s t F i v e - y e a r P l a n o f t h e Government of India,
the Central Rural Sanitation Programme introduced in
1986, the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) in 1999,and
the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) in 2012 to achieve its
vision of completing the task by 2022. There were
individual efforts that merit mention. Inspired by Gandhian
thoughts, the t w o i n d i v i d u a l s m a d e a l a n d m a r k
in the movement of sanitation. Safai
Vidyalaya (now Environment Sanitation
Institute) headed up by late Shri Ishwar Bhai Patel, with
support from Gandhi’s Harijan Sevak Sangh, established
the first Safai Vidyalaya in Ahmedabad in 1963. Sulabh
International Social Service Organisation (popularly known
as Sulabh Shauchalaya(toilets)founded in 1970 by Dr.
Bindeshwar Pathak, is dedicated to Gandhian ideology of
emancipation of scavengers.
The present Prime Minister of India launched the Swachh
Bharat Abhiyan(SBA) on 2 October
2 0 1 4 , t h e l a r g e s t programme on sanitation by the
Government of India till date.SBA aims to make India
Open Defecation Free (ODF) through construction of
individual, cluster and community toilets, to keep the
villages clean,with solid and liquid waste through Gram
Panchayats.Water pipelines have to be laid to a l l
villages enabling tap connection into
h o u s e h o l d s o n demand.The aim is to achieve a
Swachh Bharat by 2019 (SBA Guidelines 2014; Kaul
2014; Iyengar 2014).
While nomenclature was modified over the years,
emphasis was given, financial allocations were upped
many times, yet achievements of an array of programmes
have been limited increase in coverage of household
toilets, especially in rural areas from 1% in 1981 to 11%
in 1991, to 22% in 2001 and further standing at 32.7% in
2011. We still have not been able to provide piped water
supply to more than half of the rural house holds.Sinha
(2014) asks pertinently, Where is the problem? Where d i d
we go wrong? Either the programme is not
g o o d o r execution is not appropriate? Or the people are
In different? It was pointed out that, apart from availability
of water, lack of awareness among the target
population in rural, tribal, and other under-served areas
of India is one of the important reasons f o r a c o l d
response to these programmes. Increasing
t h e responsiveness level of the individuals and
communities and the awareness level of the target group
about these programmes is imperative to bring about
behavioural changes among both and make them respond
to the interventions in a better way.Obviously,
communication has a central place in the scheme o f
things.W e a l l a g r e e t h a t f o r SB A o r a n y
such p r o g r a m m e , awareness creation and
health education through various c h a n n e l s a r e
the tasks for motivating communities and
Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) to adopt sustainable
sanitation practices. A habit of scientific solid and
liquid management systems and overall cleanliness are
also to be developed through systematic communication
support.

What is Modi’s opinion?

Modi has directly linked the Clean India movement with
the economic health of the nation. This mission, according
to him, can contribute to GDP growth, provide a source of
employment and reduce health costs, thereby connecting
to an economic activity. Cleanliness is no doubt connected
to the tourism and global interests of the country as a
whole. It is time that India’s top 50 tourist destinations
displayed highest standard of hygiene and cleanliness so
as to change the global perception.

Clean India can bring in more tourists, thereby increasing

the revenue. He has appealed to the people to devote 100
hours every year to cleanliness. Not only the sanitation
programme, Modi also laid emphasis on solid waste
management and waste water management. Nitin
Gadkari, Union Minister of Rural Development, Drinking
Water & Sanitation, said that solid and liquid waste
management activities using scientifically proven
advanced techniques will be launched in each gram
panchayat. Narendra Modi has also directed that separate
toilets for boys and girls should be provided in every
school in the country by August 15, 2015.

Modi’s Nominees for Promoting the Swachh

Bharat Abhiyan

On October 2, 2014, Modi nominated nine celebrities from

various fields to propagate the mission, considering the
new age marketing via social media. The nominated
personalities included, Anil Ambani, Mridula Sinha, Baba
Ramdev, Kamal Hassan, Priyanka Chopra, Sachin
Tendulkar, Salman Khan, Shashi Tharoor and the team of
the TV series Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah.
On 25 December, Modi nominated nine more people
including the comedian Kapil Sharma, Sourav Ganguly,
Kiran Bedi, Padmanabha Acharya, Nagaland Governor,
Sonal Mansingh, Ramoji Rao of Eenadu group and Aroon
Purie to take forward his “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”. Some
organisations such as the Institute of Chartered
Accountants of India, India Today, Eenadu and the
popular “dabbewale” of Mumbai were also nominated to
be the torchbearers.

Funds Allocation

This project is expected to cost over Rs. 2 lakhs crore.

Fund sharing between the Central and State Governments
and Urban Local Bodies is allocated in the ratio of 75:25. It
has been officially stated that for North Eastern and
special category states, the allocation of funds is in the
ratio of 90:10. To give a boost to the project, the
government has sought financial and technical support
from the World Bank. Also, all big corporates and private
organisations are asked to join the movement as part of
their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative.

Measures Proposed in 2015-16 Union Budget

Describing Clean India campaign as a “programme for

preventive healthcare, and building awareness”, the
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed that the donations
made to the Swachh Bharat Mission and the Clean Ganga
Fund will be eligible for tax deductions under the Income
Tax Act. The budget also proposed Swachh Bharat cess
on select services at the rate of up to 2 per cent. The
resources generated from this cess will be leveraged for
funding initiatives towards the campaign.

Construction of 99.85 million Toilets till August

2019

According to government data, maximum funds were

released to Uttar Pradesh (Rs 6592 crores) and Bihar (Rs
2943 crore) in 2018-19 through SBM-Gramin for building
toilets under this dream project. This number is considered
the highest since the launch launch of SBM in October
2014. Overall, the government claims to have built 99.85
million individual toilets till August 2019. Moreover, 640
districts have become Open Defecation Free (ODF) in the
past 5 years.

The Pledge for All

PM Narendra Modi has urged each and every one of us to

pledge the following as a part of the Swachh Bharat
Abhiyan:
“I will remain committed towards cleanliness and devote
time for this. I will devote 100 hours per year, that is two
hours per week, to voluntarily work for cleanliness. I will
neither litter not let others litter. I will initiate the quest for
cleanliness with myself, my family, my locality, my village
and my work place”.
Let’s Make Swachh Bharat Abhiyan a Success

The PM has rightly asserted that Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

should be a combined effort of both the Government as
well as the people. We hope that the Swachh Bharat
Mission does not become another Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan
started by the previous Government in 1999 with the same
mission but was far from a success.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan should not be a mere re-branding

exercise. There is no doubt about the fact that change
begins at home. Every citizen of the country should take it
upon himself to make this campaign a success rather than
waiting for the government to do. Let us also hope that we
can change the attitude of the people towards hygiene and
be the change we want to see.
 SWACHH BHARAT ABHIYAN
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) or Swachh Bharat
Mission (SBM) is a nation-wide campaign India's cities,
towns, urban and rural areas. The campaign's official
name is in Hindi and translates to "Neat and Tidy India
Mission" in English. The objectives of Swachh Bharat
include eliminating open defecation through the
construction of household-owned and community-
owned toilets and establishing an accountable mechanism
of monitoring toilet use. Run by the Government of India,
the mission aims to achieve an "open-defecation free"
(ODF) India by 2 October 2019, the 150th birth
anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi,by constructing 100
million toilets in rural India at a projected cost of ₹1.96 lakh
crore (US$28 billion). The mission will also contribute to
India reaching Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6),
established by the UN in 2015.
The campaign was officially launched on 2 October 2014
at Rajghat, New Delhi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It
is India's largest cleanliness drive to date with three million
government employees and students from all parts of
India participating in 4,043 cities,towns and rural areas.
Modi has called the campaign Satyagrah se
Swachhagrah in reference to Gandhi's Champaran
Satyagraha launched on 10 April 1916.
The mission has two thrusts: Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
("gramin" or 'rural'), which operates under the Ministry of
Drinking Water and Sanitation; and Swachh Bharat

Abhiyan ('urban'), which operates under the Ministry of

Housing and Urban Affairs.As part of the campaign,
volunteers, known as Swachh agrahis, or "Ambassadors
of cleanliness", have promoted indoor plumbing and
community approaches to sanitation (CAS) at the village
level. Other non-governmental activities include national
real-time monitoring and updates from non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) such as The Ugly Indian, Waste
Warriors, and SWACHH Pune (Solid Waste Collection and
Handling) that are working towards its ideas of Swachh
Bharat.
The government has constructed 11 million toilets since
2014. Many people continue to not use toilets despite
having them. The campaign has been criticized for using
corecive approaches to force people to use toilets. Many
households have been threatened with a loss of benefits
such as access to electricity or food entitlements through
the public distribution system.

OBJECTIVES OF SBM
The Swachh Bharat Mission has the following objectives:

1.Elimination of open defecation

2.Eradication of Manual Scavenging
3.Modern and Scientific Municipal Solid Waste
Management
4.To effect behavioural change regarding healthy
sanitation practices
5.Generate awareness about sanitation and its linkage
with public health
6.Capacity Augmentation for Urban Local Bodies (ULB’s)
7.To create an enabling environment for private sector
participation in Capex (capitalexpenditure) and Opex
(operation and maintenance)

COMPONENTS OF SBM
The Swachh Bharat Mission has the following
components:

1.Household toilets, including conversion of insanitary

latrines into pour-flush latrines
2.Community toilets
3.Public toilets
4.Solid waste management
5.IEC & Public Awareness
6.Capacity building and Administrative & Office Expenses
(A & OE)
 IMPORTANCE OF SWACHH BHARAT
ABHIYAN

Mahatma Gandhi rightly said, “Sanitation is more

important than independence”. Swachh Bharat
Abhiyan was launched by the Government of India to
solve the problems of sanitation and waste management
in India by ensuring hygiene across the country. The main
aim of the project is to create sanitation facilities for all and
provide every rural family with a toilet by 2019.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directly linked

clean India with the economic health of the country. This
mission has provided a source of employment to many
people, contributed to the GDP growth, and reduced
health costs to an extent. There is no doubt that
cleanliness is interlinked with the country’s tourism and
global interests. More tourism will bring more revenue. It is
important for India to display high standards of hygiene
and cleanliness to change the overall global perception
people have about our country.

India is home to the world’s second largest population.

This mission is the biggest social initiative taken up by the
Government of India to enhance hygiene standards. The
movement has helped in cleaning up the streets, roads,
and infrastructure in many cities, small towns, and rural
areas of India. High-levels of advocacy have helped in
reducing open defecation and promote building household
owned and community owned toilets. This has risen the
hygiene and sanitation standards in the country.

Even though the scenario has improved but a lot more

needs to be done in terms of hygiene and sanitation.
Unsafe drinking water, poor access to appropriate
sanitation facilities and inadequate hand washing is a
major reason for childhood illness and death globally. 11%
of global child deaths are caused due to diarrhoea globally
even though it is preventable.

This project has sought financial and technical support

from the World Bank. Numerous corporates and private
organisations have been asked to join the movement as
part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative.
Various non-profit organisations have also joined the
movement.

Save the Children is one such organisation that believes in

the importance of maintaining sound community hygiene
so that children don’t fall prey to preventable diseases.
Therefore, we are working in several states of India, as
part of our Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
programme, to improve the hygiene status of children and
their communitie.
 5 Financial Benefits of Swachh
Bharat Mission

On 2nd Oct, 2014 Prime Minister of India Sh. Narendra

Modi Ji launched Swachh Bharat Mission. Swachh Bharat
is a noble mission and Prime Minister has appealed fellow
Indians to devote atleast 100 hours every year towards the
cause of cleanliness. Swachh Bharat Mission is time
bound project to be completed before 2nd Oct, 2019 i.e.
by 150th Birth Anniversary of Father of Nation Mahatma
Gandhi. As a layman, i only foresee cleanliness or clean
india as sole objective behind Swachh Bharat Mission but
on deeper analysis, you will observe financial benefits
behind Swachh Bharat Mission. As a common citizen of
India, i can conclude that if Swachh Bharat Mission is
successful then it will be financially beneficial for all the
citizens of India. Lets check 5 Financial Benefits attached
to Swachh Bharat Mission.
 Tourism and Swachh Bharat

India is a land of cultural heritage and rich history. Tourism

generate approx 6.6% of India’s GDP and 39.5 Million
Indians are directly employed in this sector. Tourism can
generate employment for upto 5% of India’s population i.e.
62.5 Mn people. It has potential to generate 23 Mn
additional job opportunities or 2.3 Cr people will get job. I
have taken 5% employment fig which is very conservative
after studying tourism model of countries which focus on
tourism. The biggest limitation for India to promote tourism
is cleanliness. Foreign tourists are very particular about
hygiene and cleanliness. Besides employment, Tourism
will help bring foreign money to India which will boost
India’s GDP. Swachh Bharat Mission will help in
generating employment through Tourism and boost
India’s GDP.

 Health
Unhygienic conditions is one of the major root cause of
diseases/illness. Any disease or illness has financial
impact both in terms of expenditure and potential revenue
earning. Swachh Bharat Mission will have positive impact
on India’s health care sector. According to recent study by
WHO, Due to lack of hygienic conditions and lack of
cleanliness there is a loss of Rs 6500 every year to each
Indian. In short, there is a loss of Rs 26000 every year for
a family of four people. Isn’t it a big financial loss?.
Swachh Bharat Mission will plug this loss and will help to
ease burden on existing health care facilities.

 Clean Technology
Gradually focus on cleanliness and hygiene will shift focus
towards use of clean technology i.e. non-polluting in
nature. It will involve use of bio-degradable fuel and
products. Any shift towards clean technology will have
positive ripple effect on entire economy. New technology
bring new set of employment opportunities like in the case
of Information Technology. Focus on new technology will
lead to new skill development for innovation thus help in
generating new employment/entrepreneurial opportunities
for india’s youth. It will put india in the league of skilled
economies of the world. India can become hub of clean
technology for entire world. Swachh Bharat Mission should
not be linked only to cleanliness and hygiene but it has
larger objective of putting India in the league of nations
working towards technological develpment for future.

 Individual Productivity
Healthy Body results in Healthy mind which is directly
proportional to Productivity of an individual. Swachh
Bharat Mission will lead to Healthy India which in turn
increase productivity of Indians. High productivity means
High earning potential. In short we can say healthy body is
directly proportional to earning potential. A healthy auto
driver can work for 12 hours a day from existing 8 hours
thus can earn 50% more. Developed countries are live
examples of how healthy citizens can help in increasing
per capita GDP of the country. The per capita GDP of
healthy nation is much higher compared to ill nations in
Africa/Asia. An ill nation can never become developed
economy. It will always remain under developed or
developing nation.
 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
Under current economic conditions, India desperately
need Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Going by example
of Singapore which undertook similar cleanliness drive
from 1977 to 1987. It helped Singapore to attract FDI.
“Keep Singapore Clean” campaign transformed Singapore
from Developing to Developed nation. Hope Swachh
Bharat Mission will do similar wonders for India.
Swachh Bharat Mission cannot be successful without the
support of each and every Indian. We should not think
what’s in it for me. Through this post, i have tried to
convey that Swachh Bharat Mission will financially benefit
each and every citizen of India. If we want financial growth
then we have to collectively make Swachh Bharat Mission
of Sh Narendra Modi a roaring success in next 5 years.
Swachh Bharat Mission is one of the critical link towards
economic success of India. Lets take a pledge to keep our
surroundings clean and contribute positively towards
Swachh Bharat Mission.
 Positive Side of Swachh Bharat
Abhiyan

When Swachh Bharat Abhiyan program was launched by

the government of India several awareness campaigns
were organized by the Gram Panchayat of Kiratpur for
creating awareness among villagers about cleanliness and
personal hygiene. People from all the castes came
together to create awareness about health and sanitation
under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. These campaigns helped
in creating togetherness among people. Advertisements
were also heard on radio by the people of
Kiratpur. Popular local artists while performing during
festivals functions, in the wake of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
appealed to people to keep hygiene and use toilets for
nature’s call. These helped bring awareness among
people.

By encountering, various awareness program, villagers

built many new toilets and around 31new toilets in the
village under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Not only this, more
number of people started using toilets which were
previously built by them. Youth of the village played an
important role in creating awareness about the benefits of
using toilets.
Kiratpur village has a strong presence of JEEVIKA project,
which is a project of Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion
Society and works for women empowerment. For this,
they form Self-help groups across the village of 12-15
women per group. They have formed 11 SHG’s in the
village. BRLPS has taken over from PHED for
implementation of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in the village.
They have constantly encouraged SHG members to build
toilets and use them. This has encouraged many people in
the village to use toilets and hence created a lot of
awareness regarding Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

People do realize the importance of dustbins in the public

places. Just like the liquor ban, people of the village are in
favour of plastic ban as they know burning it damages the
atmosphere and its use should be prohibited.

PROBLEM
Since, its inception there were many misconceptions
among people about the benefits they can enjoy under
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. This misconception later resulted
in creating problem during the implementation of the
program.

Large number of people living in Kiratpur village had the

view that the amount government is paying under the
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan scheme of Rs 12000 is
insufficient for building a good quality toilet. They used to
cite inflation as one of the reason. Due to which, many
household were against building toilets and wanted only to
build toilets when the compensation amount would be
increased to a better level. People complained that they
were only allowed to build a specific type of toilet and had
this misconception that they cannot build a better
improved type of toilet as mentioned in the Swachh Bharat
Abhiyan scheme.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan scheme was implemented in the

village under PHED and the norms used for payment of
the toilets built under the scheme had been changed. The
new rules came in as a game changer where the people
would be paid if the ward they lived in has 80% of toilet
coverage. Thus, this act of joint liability for building toilets
in the ward also increased the number of toilets to be built
in the village. Though, the villagers did not favor this,
many poor household who had built the toilet before the
new rule could not claim their compensation and hence
were in complete misery. This demotivated many poor
families in the village to build toilets and became a hurdle
towards the fulfillment of its goal. Many families in the
village which did not have financial power to build the toilet
by themselves wanted the compensation money before
building the toilet so that they can build a toilet in their
house as they had no savings for building a toilet.

People in the village also complained about the corruption

that was taking place when they went to claim their
compensation under Swachh Bharat. The households
which had received the compensation under SBA
complained of paying a bribe of around Rs 2000 before
hand to the agent for getting the compensation of Rs
12000. This resulted in a partial receipt of Rs 10000 by the
people and hence demotivated them. Villagers were
concerned about their health but were not at all worried
about community cleanliness and hence, when the idea of
community toilet was discussed with them the idea was
rejected straightaway. The Gram Panchayat itself was
lacking the knowledge and determination to make a
community toilet for the villagers.Previously, the
community toilet which was built in the nearby village by
Gram Panchayat were not functioning at all as the Gram
Panchayat could not nominate anyone for the cleanliness
of the same. So, the people of Kiratpur cited the same
reason for the future failure of the community toilet.
 Bottlenecks in the Clean India
Mission

While the Central Government is confident of eradicating

open defecation by 2019, theground level reports are far
from inspiring. Several newspapers and other
independentreports have nullified the claims made by the
government by highlighting the poorimplementation and
flaws in the Clean India Mission programme.

Different ground – level reports

“
According to the Ministry of drinking water and sanitation,
open defecation is definedwhen no visible faeces found in
the village or environment and when every house, as
wellas community or public bodies, use safe technology
mechanisms to dispose of the solidwaste. The area must
not only have latrines with functional water supply but also
makesure that every resident uses the latrines (Swachh
Bharat Mission Gramin 2014).But, according to media
reports, the respective administration machinery
iscounting based on the number of toilets built to calculate
open defecation free (ODF)status. For instance, the
representatives of Mungeli district in Chhattisgarh were
lauded for becoming ODF. In Mohndi village, in the
meantime, roughly one – third of the totalhouseholds do
not have a latrine. Moreover, some of the latrines
constructed by thegovernment are non – functional as
they do not have water pipeline and sewageconnections
according to the daily Indian Express.

Rather, such latrines have open drains.So, many

households have started a substitute usage of these
government constructed latrines: to store grains. Yuvraj
Sahu who is a farmer and a local resident of Mohndivillage
said that government officials visited his one– room house
and told him it wasimpossible constructing a latrine. Later,
however, some government officials asked himto pose for
a photograph in front of his neighbourhood latrine; the
photo was later printedin the local newspapers. Sahu
scrutinised with local authorities and was shocked to
knowthat the government had recorded paying him twelve
thousand rupees subsidy toconstruct a latrine in his
house. But, actually, he still goes to defecate in a nearby
pond. Ifdetailed examinations were carried out elsewhere,
thousands of latrine scams like thismay come up across
the country. Clearly, local officials are taking away the
publicresources meant for the construction of latrines. The
officials manipulate the records toclaim ODF status. As a
result, on paper latrines are constructed while actually
people stilldefecate in open (Tyagi 2017). This is distant
from being ODF, as being claimed by thegovernment.
”
Moreover, six per cent of the households in the country
have reported practising open– defecation despite having
toilets (Karelia, NDTV 2017).
Scarcity of water

Another issue is the lack of access to water. Most toilets

being built under Swachh Indiamission are
water intensive. In a country scarce in water supply, it
often leads to anunusable toilet with no water. Sixty three
per cent of the households that defecated in theopen
reported having toilets without running water. For the
financial year, 2017 Swachh Bharat (Rural) received
central allocation worth 13,948 crore rupees. However,the
allocation for rural water infrastructure improvement was
merely 6,000 crores rupees,less than half of what has
been allocated to Swachh Bharat (Rural). As of 2017,
almost19,000 villages in India are yet to have access to
piped water supply. Even the ones thatdo get piped water,
getting forty litres a day remains a distant dream. On an
average,a well supplied rural household receives eight
ten litres of water per day and as water ismostly utilised for
cooking, drinking and washing, using it for sanitation
becomes the last priority. Only seventy two per cent of the
open defecation free (ODF) villages have awater supply
(Dutta, NDTV 2017). The village women have to walk
much to fetch waterfor domestic purposes. For this, the
subsidy provided to the rural households to construct
toilets has been factored in the water element. But, in rural
areas the entire water systemis decentralised. Houses are
scattered, they are not in one place. Therefore, supplying
water to various locations is tedious.
Caste–based discrimination

Although there is provision for technology like sewer

pumps and mechanism to convertthe waste into bio-
fertilisers, but the reality is different. Some reports assert
that suchtechnology is still absent in most of the villages,
therebypromotingmanualscavenging by default. Many com
munities stillregard the inclusion of a sanitary toilet as ritua
l and physical pollution of the house, and even the less co
nservative are ready to accept onlylarge, expensive and
unscientific structures much bigger than those
recommended by theWHO. Although on paper there is
provision for cleaning the pits through pumps but
such pumps are not available, compelling Dalits to resort t
o manual scavenging. More pernicious is the entrenched b
elief in the caste system that assumes Dalits will readily pe
rform the stigmatised task of emptying latrines (The Citize
n 2016).

Also, there have been instances when the latrines are alre
ady constructed but some marginalised groupsare denied
access to them. Moreover, a particular section of the
group is still compelledto practice manual scavenging
(Sagar 2017). The funds for solid waste management
havealso been reduced from thirty to twenty-five per cent
in this year's budget (PTI 2013).The Ministry of Urban
Development's report on Swatch Bharat Mission (urban)
showsthat only about eighteen per cent of the total solid
waste generated has been processed.
Lack of behavioural change

Spending on the expenditure for behaviour change

campaign activities is much less.Sixty one per cent of rural
people resort to open defecation, which is poorer than
thirty seven per cent in Sub SaharanRegionns. This shows
thatit’smoreofbehaviouralproblem than merely creating infr
astructure. Additionally, there is lack of awarenessamong
people to use the toilets instead of going to the fields to
relieve themselves. Eventhough communities and
Panchayati Raj Institutions have tried to make people
adoptsustainable sanitation practices and facilities through
awareness creation and healtheducation, but still nothing
concrete has been done to bring about a behavioural
change inthe people, keeping aside the poor maintenance.
A study by RICE (Research Institute forCompassionate
Economics) has specified that of forty per cent of
households in MadhyaPradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar and Rajasthan having a toilet, at least onemember
of the household still defecated in open. This analysis
approves the idea thatmerely constructing latrines without
focusing on behavioural change is futile. The needof the
hour is to induce people to make a linkage people
between good health, hygieneand use of the toilet.By
supporting non coercive behaviour change,
communication programmes,training and deploying field
facilitators and through plays and puppet shows;
andmonitoring the use of toilets and hygiene behaviour,
governments can help to make longlasting change on the
communities.
Lack of scientific toilets

The Indian government latrines that are built under the

Swachh Bharat Mission are muchmore expensive than
WHO recommended latrines because they have brick and
mortarsuperstructures above the ground, rather than less
expensive superstructures made out oftin, plastic,
bamboo, or cloth. If they were built and used properly,
Indiangovernment built latrines would successfully interrup
t the transmission of disease, saving lives and promoting
child growth (Coffey and Spears 2017). Moreover, the
toilets built are uniform across the country irrespective of
the soil, topography, water availability and geology.There
is no provision for manure making out of the toilets.
Unavailability of sewer pumps makes cleaning the pits
periodically a difficult task. The effort should be to createa
demand from within the community by close interaction at
the grassroots level insteadof wasting money by building
redundant toilets.A pan India infrastructure to look beyond
river and groundwater, such as rainwaterharvesting may
improve India’s water resources and provide enough water
availability in rural areas for people to use water properly
for sanitation purposes. For example, Lehwhich was
recently declared open defecation free has been lauded
for the dry latrinesconstructed in the water scarce area
(Dutta, NDTV 2017).
Lack of accountability

Around 1.3 crore household toilets need urgent repairs

according to an independent studyin 2015, despite the
ongoing sanitation programme (Youth Ki Aawaaz 2016).
Suchhouseholds are clueless about whom to approach.
There has been opposition toaccountability and
transparency an option reinforced by the rejection of many
RTIrequests on thin procedural grounds. Therefore, the
government’s data and claims on the Clean Mission
should be met with scepticism until they are checked by
crediblenongovernment agencies, and until their findings
are released for public scrutiny.