Swachh Bharat Mission

The Swachh Bharath Mission was launched in the year 2014 on the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. It is a nationwide campaign that caters to the cleanliness of the streets, roads and infrastructure across the length and breadth of India and is envisaged as a solution to open defecation and contamination of drinking and bathing water, which is a sanitary problem in the country. The mission operates with both national and rural components, which are respectively headed by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. It is propagated as a movement that fulfils Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of a Clean India.

Objectives

The Mission has been established with the objective of eliminating open defecation through the construction of household-owned and community-owned toilets and setting up an accountable mechanism for monitoring the usage of the toilet.

Swachh Bharat Mission for Urban Areas

The initiative seeks to eliminate open defecation, convert unsanitary toilets to pour flush toilets, remove manual scavenging, manage municipal wastes and inculcate a behavioural change in people concerning healthy sanitation practices. It aims to cover 1.04 crore households, provide 2.5 lakh community toilets, 2.6 lakh public toilets, and a solid waste management facility in all towns. The toilets will be built in residential areas where building individual household toilets is considered difficult. Apart from this, public toilets will be constructed in tourist places, markets, bus stations, railway stations etc.

Swachh Bharat Mission for Rural Locales

Also known as Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin), the initiative seeks to make India an open defecation free country in five years, improve the cleanliness levels in rural locales through Solid and Liquid Waste Management activities and to make Gram Panchayats Open Defecation Free (ODF). The mission will be executed by engaging gram panchayats, Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad in the country, as well as a large section of the rural populous, including school teachers and students. Incentives will be provided for the construction of Individual Household Latrines (IHHL) for Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Above Poverty Line (APL) households restricted to SCs/STs, small and marginal farmers, landless labourers with homestead, physically handicapped and women-headed households.

Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan

Launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the initiative seeks to provide separate toilets for both boys and girls in government schools within a span of a year and ensure that schools across the country has a set of essential interventions pertaining to both technical and human development aspects of a good water, sanitation and hygiene programme.

Swachh Bharat Kosh

Also known as Rashtriya Swachhata Kosh, the initiative seeks to facilitate and channelize individual philanthropic contributions and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility Funds) to achieve the objective of the parent mission (Swachh Bharat). The implementation would cater to the improvement of cleanliness levels in rural and urban areas, including schools.

Swachh Bharat Challenges

Swachh Bharat Challenge is an initiative that helps people in sharing their experience with Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, thereby paving the way for other people to accept the challenge and join hands with the Abhiyan. A user may extend the challenge to a maximum of nine persons, the likes of whom could challenge more people. This would help in the growth of the activity and the campaign as a whole.

Back to Learn

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Swachh Bharat Mission: Clean India Initiative 2014.

The Swachh Bharat Mission is a nationwide campaign launched in 2014 on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. It aims to promote cleanliness across India by addressing issues such as open defecation, contamination of water sources, and proper waste management. The mission has both urban and rural components, overseen by different ministries.

The primary objectives of the Swachh Bharat Mission are to eliminate open defecation by constructing household and community toilets, establish a monitoring system for toilet usage, and bring about a behavioral change towards adopting healthy sanitation practices among the public.

The urban component of the mission focuses on eliminating open defecation, converting insanitary toilets to pour flush toilets, eradicating manual scavenging, managing municipal solid waste, and promoting behavioral change towards proper sanitation. It aims to construct over 2.5 lakh community toilets, 2.6 lakh public toilets, and provide solid waste management facilities in all towns.

Also known as Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin), this component aims to make India an open defecation-free country within five years. It involves improving cleanliness levels in rural areas through solid and liquid waste management activities and making Gram Panchayats open defecation-free. The mission engages Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis, Zila Parishads, and the rural population, including teachers and students.

Launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan aims to provide separate toilets for boys and girls in government schools within a year. It also seeks to ensure that schools across the country have essential interventions related to water, sanitation, and hygiene programs.

The Swachh Bharat Kosh, also known as the Rashtriya Swachhata Kosh, is an initiative to facilitate and channel individual philanthropic contributions and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds towards achieving the objectives of the Swachh Bharat Mission. The funds will be used to improve cleanliness levels in both rural and urban areas, including schools.

The Swachh Bharat Challenge is an initiative that encourages people to share their experiences with the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and challenge others to join the campaign. A user can challenge up to nine people, who can then challenge more people, helping to spread awareness and participation in the campaign.

The mission provides incentives for the construction of Individual Household Latrines (IHHL) for households belonging to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Above Poverty Line (APL) categories, restricted to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, small and marginal farmers, landless laborers with homesteads, physically handicapped individuals, and women-headed households.

The urban component of the mission aims to establish solid waste management facilities in all towns across India. Additionally, the rural component focuses on improving solid and liquid waste management activities in rural areas through the involvement of Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis, and Zila Parishads.

The Swachh Bharat Mission was launched on October 2, 2014, which marks the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The campaign is propagated as a movement that fulfills Gandhi's vision of a Clean India, highlighting the importance of cleanliness and sanitation promoted by the Father of the Nation.