Swachhata Movement Continues

• Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), the world’s largest behavior-change programme has resulted in achieving a huge task of becoming open-defecation free in five years.
• As a result of the Mission, rural sanitation coverage has increased from 38.7 per cent in 2014 to 100 per cent in 2019, with over 10.25 Crore toilets built across India.
• India achieved SDG Goal 6.2 declared by the United Nations for providing safe sanitation for all and that too 11 years before the targeted year, 2030.
• The success of the programme is attributed to the 4 Ps - political leadership, public financing, partnerships, and public participation.
• The Phase II of the Swachh Bharat Mission- Grameen (SBM-G) has been approved in February 2020to focus on solid and liquid waste management (SLWM), and the sustainability of ODF status.
• The 15th Finance Commission report for 2020-21 has also provided much-needed tied grants for sanitation to rural local bodies.
• Thus, the Phase II of the SBM-G is planned to be a novel model of convergence between different verticals of financing and various schemes of the Central and State governments.
• The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS) is implementing this in a Mission Mode from 2020-21 to 2024-25 with impetus to the rural economy, community sanitary complexes, as well as the infrastructure forsolid and liquid waste management.

SBM Phase II: From ODF to ODF Plus

• Objective: To make villages across India ODF Plus villages.
• To become an ODF Plus village, a village has to ensure that:
  • All households have access to a functional toilet facility.
  • All schools, Anganwadi centers, and Panchayat Ghars have access to a functional toilet, with separate toilets for females and males.
  • Public places are visually clean.
  • At least 80 per cent of households and all public institutions have arrangements for managing solid and liquid waste.
  • The village has a plastic segregation and collection system.
  • At least five ODF Plus IEC wall paintings per village on five key themes of ODF sustainability, handwashing with soap, biodegradable waste management through compost pits, greywater management through soak pits, and plastic waste management.
• Planning for SBM (G) Phase II: decentralized sanitation interventions
  • It is required that each Gram Panchayat prepares Village Action Plans for all of its villages for the SBM (G) and the Jal Jeevan Mission. Endorsement of the Gram Sabha should be obtained and recorded.
  • At the district level, a District Swachhata Plan after consolidating its Village Action Plans is required to be prepared.
  • States/UTs are required to develop a Project Implementation Plan (PIP) and Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) every year consolidating the District Swachhata Plan.
  • The National Scheme Sanctioning Committee (NSSC) then considers and approves the PIPs and AIPs.
  • The States and UTs are required to develop and upload these plans on the Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) by the 1st March of every year.
• Capacity Building: the role of Swachhagrahis remains important even in Phase II.

Profound Impact of SBM

• SBM saves lives: 307,000 diarrheal deaths avoided when India becomes ODF
• SBM Leveraged resources: Mobilized a spend equivalent to INR 26000 Cr. on monetary IEC activities SBM saves the environment: ODF villages 11.25 times less likely to have ground water contaminated
• SBM ROI: 43% Return on Investment (ROI)
• SBM saves money: Household in an ODF villages in India saves on average approx. $720 per year
• SBM creates jobs:55 million jobs created between Oct 2014 and Feb 2019

Role of Panchayati Raj Institutions

• As per the Constitution 73rd Amendment Act, 1992, sanitation is included in the 11th schedule, therefore, the role of Gram Panchayat (GP) is pivotal in implementing SBM (G).
• Each Gram Panchayat is expected to develop a village Swachhata plan for each financial year and feed it as per GPDP planning principles in the designated Plan Software, as well as into the SBM (G) MIS.

Monitoring and Evaluating

• DDWS leads the monitoring and evaluation of the SBM Phase II work in coordination with the States/UTs and Districts.
• The monitoring and evaluation have two aspects: first is ensuring the status of ODF Plus villages and second is that of created assets and expenditure incurred.