A REVIEW ON SWACHH BHARAT ABHIYAN
Authors: Jain Amit Kumar , Ruhela Anuj Kumar 
Published: April 2018

India is a home to 1.21 billion people, about one-sixth of the world’s population. The Prime Minister of India launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) on 2nd October, 2014 to accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and to put focus on sanitation. It is India's biggest ever cleanliness drive and 3 million government employees and school and college students of India participated in this event. The SBM has two sub-missions, the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) and the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban). Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation is the nodal Ministry for SBM (Gramin) and Ministry of Urban Development is the nodal Ministry for SBM (Urban). The core objectives of SBM are to bring about an improvement in the general quality of life in the rural areas. India clean by October 2, 2019 with core objectives of making the country 100% free from Open Defecation and ensuring 100% Modern and Scientific Municipal Solid Waste Management as a fitting tribute to the 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, which in rural areas shall mean improving the levels of cleanliness. Villages are considered "Open Defecation-Free" when no faeces are openly visible and every household and public/community institution uses safe technology to dispose of faeces in such a way that there is no contamination of surface soil, groundwater or surface water; excreta is inaccessible to flies or animals, with no manual handling of fresh excreta; and there are no odour and unsightly conditions. Usually, an "ODF village" declaration is made by the village or Gram Panchayat. As of 2016, 36.7% of rural households and 70.3% of urban households, 48.4% of households overall used improved sanitation facilities as per data of National Family Health Survey 4, which was conducted between January 2015 and December 2016, show. A majority, 51.6%, did not. Household toilet availability has improved from 41.93% 2014 to 63.98% in 2017, and the state of Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Kerala have achieved 100% Open Defecation Free (ODF) status as per data of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Gram Panchayats have self-declared 193,081 villages to be ODF, but 53.9% of these have not been verified, according to the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, which is responsible for Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin, which accounts for 85% of Swachh Bharat Mission's budget. (Data accessed on May 22, 2017). According to the Swachh Survekshan 2017 Report, the top two cleanest cities in India are Indore and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh while Gonda in Uttar Pradesh is the dirtiest city in India, Every segment of population, from primary school children to elderly persons need to be properly sensitized about inherent linkages of sanitation for public health. Besides roping in the educational institutions, particularly the schools in awareness campaigns, optimum use needs to be made of social media as well as electronic and print media to spread the message to grass root level. Celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan is leading a “Darwaza Bandh” (on open defecation) campaign for SBA. The film Toilet: Ek Prem Katha was released in Indian Cinema in the year of 2017 to improve the sanitation conditions, with an emphasis on the eradication of open defecation, especially in rural areas. Swachh Shakti 2018 is celebrated in Lucknow with 15 thousands women Swachh Bharat Champions resolving to usher in Clean India on International Women’s Day (8th March 2018).