Swachh Bharat Mission - Gramin
To accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and to put the focus on sanitation, the Prime Minister of India had launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on 2nd October 2014. Under the mission, all villages, Gram Panchayats, Districts, States and Union Territories in India declared themselves “open-defecation free” (ODF) by 2 October 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, by constructing over 100 million toilets in rural India. To ensure that the open defecation free behaviours are sustained, no one is left behind, and that solid and liquid waste management facilities are accessible, the Mission is moving towards the next Phase II of SBMG i.e ODF-Plus. ODF Plus activities under Phase II of Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) will reinforce ODF behaviours and focus on providing interventions for the safe management of solid and liquid waste in villages.
It is India’s largest cleanliness drive to date with three million government employees and students from all parts of India participating in 4,041 cities, towns, and rural areas. The mission has two thrusts: Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (“Gramin) or rural, which operates under the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation; andSwachh Bharat Abhiyan or urban, which operates under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
The P.M. had made a call to take the campaign from Satyagrah to Swachhagrah in reference to Gandhi’s Champaran Satyagraha launched on 10 April 1917. As part of the campaign, volunteers, known as Swachhagrahis, or “ambassadors of cleanliness”, have promoted community approaches to sanitation (CAS) at the village level.
