Turning Swachh Bharat Mission into a Mass Movement
Over 2.5 billion people mostly in rural
areas across the world do not have proper sanitation facilities
and over one billion people defecate in the open due to lack of proper
toilet facilities. The situation is no better in our country where more than half
of the population defecates in the open.
It is well known that countries where open defecation is most
widely practiced are the same countries with the highest numbers of under-five
child deaths, high levels of under-nutrition and poverty, and large wealth
disparities.
Realising
that the large scale population was exposed to various kinds
of diseases due to lack of sanitation facilities the government of
India has advancing the earlier target of making India free from
open defecation by 2022 to 2019 by launching a massive Swachh Bharat Mission.
2019 coincides with the 150th Jayanti Birth Anniversary year of
Mahatama Gandhi who considered sanitation more important than even
Independence.
An
Action plan has been drawn up to make India Open Defecation Free (ODF) by 2019, to keep
villages clean through construction of individual, cluster &
community toilets and through solid and liquid waste management with
active participation of village Gram Panchayats (GPs). It also aims at
enabling water tap make connection to households on demand by 2019.
The Action plan is centered around the major issues:
1. Strengthening delivery
mechanism by creating necessary infrastructure and
2. Launching a massive
awareness programme involving all stake holders to make the Swachh Bharat
Mission into a mass movement.
NATIONAL REACHOUT CAMPAIGN
What
is really of prime importance is changing the mindset of the people who are
habituated to defecate in the open, even those who have toilets. To bring in
behavioral change is the biggest challenge before the government. A National
Reachout Campaign has been unleashed towards this end.
The measures include:
A
continuous door to door contact with every rural household in the country on
the lines of the Pulse Polio campaign so that the people can be made aware of
the importance of using a toilet and the consequences of not doing so.
Launching of a National and State Level Media campaign making use of audio
visual, mobile telephony and local outreach programmes to communicate the
message.
Involvement of Social, Local, Sports or Movie Icons in Sanitation messaging.
Already cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and many movie stars have joined the
campaign.
Community Mobilization is an important step to turn the campaign into a mass
movement. It is not just the involvement of ASHA workers, Self Help Groups and
other NGOS which is already being done but also using School children as a
medium to influence families.
Involving school children as messengers of Change on ‘WASH’ – Water, Sanitation
and Hygiene and including inputs in the school curriculum till Class X. Holding
of rallies, walk/run for sanitation, seminars, painting competitions &
other activities in Schools to disseminate the sanitation message are being
organized in a big way – facebook page of ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ and facebook
page of Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation provide a glimpse of all these
activities.
Getting Doctors, teachers, local political and religious leaders involved in
the Sanitation Communication, is also part of this Mission approach.
In
fact, it involves using every tool available to spread the message of sanitation
including using fitting vehicles with publicity material on sanitation
and drinking water supply; showing short films on Sanitation as well as best
practices.
The
vehicles like trucks could also carry models of twin pit latrines; rural
sanitary pans with p-traps and models for water supply schemes.
Wall
Paintings, shows during weekly haats/Market / school/ chaupals through Self
Help Groups (SHGs). Also making use of the popular Folk Media like puppet
shows, nukkad nataks to create awareness.
Involvement of various organizations in the mass communication
plan like the UNICEF, WSP, WATERAID, WHO, ADB, Rotary India, Sulabh and
the vast network of non-governmental workers as well as corporate
sectors. The assistance of some of these institutions has successfully been
utilized in the Pulse polio campaign.
Another
important step proposed in the action plan is setting up of at least one Model
Community Sanitary Complex (CSC) to begin with, in each of the 6000 Blocks in
the country as an IEC tool.
STRENGTHENING DELIVERY MECHANISM
While
the mass media can create awareness and bring changes in
attitude, what is significant is the creation of necessary
infrastructure for construction of toilets in the
villages and laying of pipe lines for supply of water in a time
bound manner , this involves the provision of material and
adequate funding .
The
Action plan proposes the use of Revolving Funds in construction
linked-instalments to provide advance to poor households who cannot afford
initial construction cost or to Gram Panchayats in construction linked
instalments to be finally recouped against incentives released on completion of
the toilets.
Increased Finance Commission transfers for this purpose may be considered to
ensure maintenance of School, Anganwadis and Community Sanitation Complexes,
which is very poor due to paucity of O&M Funds
Linkage of Funds released to GPs under all programmes, could be
linked with coverage and usage of toilets in the GP, to use it as a leverage to
ensure Swachh Bharat by 2019.
Steps proposed for supply of
material for construction include:
Ensuring availability of sanitary hardware suitable for rural areas in
adequate quantity and in reasonable prices. Availability of Deeper angle rural
pans with water seal p-traps which consume lesser water shall be ensured.
Creation of Rural Sanitary Marts/ Production Centres in every Block in
the country.
Completing the supply of material like cement, pan, bricks etc through
provision of exchangeable coupons, with labour contribution by beneficiaries.
Training of Masons in the construction
of sanitary toilets across the country to be taken up in a focused manner. For
this leading NGOs could be roped in sanitation, ITIs/ Polytechnics who could
create an Army of trained Masons specializing in sanitation construction.
Involvement of Corporate sector to assist in covering the GPs in their
Catchment areas for sanitation especially Community Sanitary Complexes, either
directly or through CSR Funding. The corporate may also look after O&M
for a couple of years.
To ensure the interest of the District, Sub-district and Block Level
Government officers beginning from District Magistrates in sanitation, the
achievements of their areas under sanitation may be included in their APRs
(Annual Performance Reports).
It was in 2013 that the UN officially
recognized November 19 as World Toilet Day to make sanitation for all, a global
development priority to promote public awareness of the need for adequate
toilets in order to improve health of people and save lives. Describing the
practice of open-air defecation as “extremely harmful” to public health, the UN
says that the lives of more than 200,000 children could be saved with the
provision of proper toilets facilities.
The 2014 campaign of World Toilet Day is centered around the theme of “Dignity
and Equality” because women and girls bear the greatest burden of lack of
toilet access throughout all life stages; Lack of toilets in schools leads to
increase in dropout rates amongst girls and open defecation by girls exposes
them to sexual harassment, assault and violence.
So in order to save millions of lives, to provide dignity girls & to women
the need is to ensure that men and women have equal right over
sanitation and water facilities.
A momentum in the Swatchh Bharat Mission has already been created across
the country, the need is to sustain it, ensure that the campaign becomes a
movement of the masses, translated into action and a Swatchh Bharat becomes a
reality by 2019 as a tribute the Father of the Nation Mahatama Gandhi.
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