Project On Swach Bharat 15t45

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 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 .

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, Panabha 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 ants 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 from the World Bank. Also, all big corporates and private organisations are asked to 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 communityowned toilets and establishing an able 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 istrative & 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 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 from the World Bank. Numerous corporates and private organisations have been asked to the movement as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative. Various non-profit organisations have also ed 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 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 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. ments 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 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 t 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 istration 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 biofertilisers, 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 forComionate 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 ing 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 ability 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 toability 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.