Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has completed 3 years since its inception.
Discuss the achievements and drawbacks of SBA.
Refer – The Hindu
IAS Parliament 7 years
KEY POINTS
· SBA aims to make India free from open defecation and achieve 100% scientific management of solid waste by 2 October 2019.
Achievements
· 50 million toilets have been constructed in rural India, increasing the coverage from 39% to 69%.
· It triggers behavioural change at communities to use toilets. Thus reducing the spread of diseases mainly caused due to inadequate access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.
· Five states have declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) in rural areas such as Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Uttarakhand and Haryana.All ODF claims are scrutinised by third-party independent verification.
· All houses built under the “Housing for All” mission will have toilets, thus empowering women.
· Besides liberating women from humiliating open defecation, building toilets protects women from frequent harassments.
· Village Swachhta index which reflects aspects of ODF, Solid Waste Management, visual cleanliness, stagnant water, helps villages to assess themselves and correct themselves to achieve great.
· Giving awareness to the children about the importance of hygiene and sanitation helping to develop a Clean India in future.
Drawbacks
· Each toilets being constructed, requires a septic tank.
· The occupation of manual scavenging is linked with caste.
· SBA does not address the eradication of the link between caste and occupation.
· Instead of modernising the sewer lines and septic tanks and investing money and energy on smart techniques of sanitation, SBA further increases the burden on manual scavengers and their right to life.
· By appointing whistle-blowers who shame those who do not use toilets, the state is terrorising people.
· Behavioural change towards using toilets will only be the result of information, education and communicating peoples.
· Inadequate fund allocation towards information, education and communication activities shows little progress towards achieving the goals of SBA.
· Higher fund allocation towards SBA-Gramin projects compared to SBA-Urban ignored the fact that urban population is growing at a much more rapid rate.
Proper integration of various components of the sanitation chain such as ensuring water supply, seepage management, sewerage networks, prevention of manual scavenging and solid waste management are the key areas to address to attain a Clean India.
