When our ancestors fought for Indian independence, they fought for a vision where India was restored to her former glory. 75 years later, India is in her Amrit Kaal – a time of rapid profitable growth, better living conditions for all, infrastructural and technological advancements, and re-awakening the world’s trust in India.
Throughout these 75 years, we saw our economy, infrastructure and technology grow – sometimes steadily, sometimes haltingly. Our living conditions improved too, but not for the poorest of the poor. Those of us with privilege continued to build on our privilege. But for the urban and rural poor, even meeting basic requirements like sanitation and toilet access were a challenge.
Then, in 2014, India embarked on the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), and almost overnight, every Indian had access to a toilet. In just 10 years, 11 crore toilets have been constructed, and over 6 lakh villages are now ODF. There has been a reduction in incidences of waterborne and vector borne diseases, and families are saving almost Rs 50,000 per year in medical costs. 100% of our Smart Cities have achieved 100% waste collection and processing.
Was the Swachh Bharat Mission India’s First Sanitation Initiative?
No, the first major sanitation drive was the Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP), which was launched in 1986 to provide sanitation facilities in rural areas. However, it was a supply-driven, highly subsidy-oriented program focused on infrastructure, with limited impact.
In 1999, the government restructured the CRSP into the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) emphasising Information, Education and Communication (IEC) to promote sanitation facilities and providing a stronger support system. The TSC also recognized the importance of school sanitation and hygiene education (SSHE) and local leadership, instituting the Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) award for districts, blocks, and Gram Panchayats (GPs) that achieved 100% sanitation coverage.
Despite scaling up significantly in the first decade, the TSC had limited achievement due to malalignments between key actors’ accountability, cognition, and power. It remained government-led, subsidy-based, infrastructure-centred, and supply-focused, instead of being community-led, incentive-based, people-centred, and demand-driven.
How Was Swachh Bharat Mission Different?
The Swachh Bharat Mission has succeeded in improving sanitation coverage and outcomes in India compared to previous initiatives for several key reasons. The first being strong political will and leadership. The mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the ambitious goal of achieving an Open Defecation Free (ODF) India by October 2, 2019, Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary. This high-level political commitment and target-driven approach helped drive progress, in addition to the PM’s direct involvement in several SBM activities.
The SBM also benefits from flexible, decentralised implementation. SBM allowed states flexibility in implementation modalities while ensuring local ownership of results. Funds were decentralised to the household level, incentivising communities to build and use toilets. Moreover, the SBM leveraged convergence and partnerships by advocating for sanitation as “everyone’s business”. It brought together ministries developing plans to construct toilets in schools, healthcare facilities, government buildings, etc. It also leveraged corporate social responsibility funds and partnerships.
Another key facet of the SBM’s success is that it prioritised disadvantaged groups by targeting construction of toilets in disadvantaged households, schools, and anganwadis to ensure equitable access, especially for women and girls. This was backed by a focus on behaviour change. SBM allocated significant funding for social and behaviour change communication campaigns to promote toilet usage and safe sanitation practices. This included training 600,000 community volunteers called swachhgrahis to drive behaviour change
Behaviour Change: The Holy Grail of Success
As the Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on Swachh Bharat Mission found, constructing toilets is just half the solution. The other half lies in changing behaviours towards sanitation and toilet use and maintenance. To this end, the sub-group made several recommendations that included the ways in which sanitation can be included as a part of school and college curriculums, and guided how change communication was done by the Swachh Bharat Mission.
Fortunately, the GoI has a vocal partner in this communication in Harpic, India’s leading brand in the lavatory care segment. Harpic has a deep and nuanced understanding of the challenges people face when they first start using and cleaning toilets. For decades now, Harpic has been teaching India how to care for our families by caring for our toilets.
For three years now, Harpic has joined hands with News18 to create Mission Swachhta aur Paani, a movement that upholds the cause of inclusive sanitation where everyone has access to clean toilets. Mission Swachhta aur Paani advocates equality for all genders, abilities, castes and classes and strongly believes that clean toilets are a shared responsibility.
Under the aegis of Mission Swachhta aur Paani, several programs and initiatives have been aimed at children, as they have proven to be powerful agents of change. Mission Swachhta aur Paani partnered with Sesame Workshop India to promote positive sanitation, hygiene knowledge and toilet behaviours among children and families through schools and communities, engaging with 17.5 million children across India. Harpic is also taking significant action to promote toilet hygiene amongst various cohorts, in addition to the stellar work done through the Harpic World Toilet College.
For 3 years now, Mission Swachhta aur Paani has brought together the right stakeholders on a common platform, so that issues of importance can be discussed, and solutions found. These stakeholders include govt officials, municipalities, NGOs, activists, grassroots organisations, sanitation workers and affected communities. It also functions as a repository for information on a vast variety of topics surrounding toilet access, toilet hygiene, and how to help improve toilet access and toilet habits across the board.
The GoI isn’t perfect, and it isn’t all knowing. As citizens, we often have a front row seat to a missed opportunity or poor performance of an initiative. The Swachh Bharat Mission is ours for the win. We get to contribute to it, we get to raise red flags, and we get to have powerful conversations with the right stakeholders – whether that takes the form of a conversation with the local municipality, or convening a local clean up drive via social media. Each of us can do our part. Join us here, to learn how you too can help move the needle towards a more Swasth and Swachh Bharat.