Swachh Bharat Abhiyan Arpit Jain Swachh Bharat Abhiyan Mon, Nov 08, 2021, at ,01:58 PM Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is one of the most momentous and widespread missions to have taken place in India. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan which is also known as Clean India Mission. This drive was expressed to cover all the cities and towns of India to make them hygienic. This campaign was administered by the Indian government and was introduced by the Prime Minister, NarendraModi. It was launched on 2nd October in order to honour Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of a Clean India. The cleanliness campaign of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was run on a national level and encompassed all the towns, rural and urban. It served as a great initiative in making people aware of the importance of cleanliness. Women have been at the receiving end of lack of toilets, for decades. From dropping out of school when they hit adolescence to health problems that develop over time due to limitations on when women can go out and relieve themselves in the open, the impact of lack of hygiene and sanitation on women goes far beyond just lack of toilets. It was only a matter of time when women would come forward and do something about lack of basics, like access to toilets. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has helped in building thousands of toilets in a couple of weeks to leading cleanliness drives to practising the 3R’s – reduce, reuse and recycle, women in India are getting involved with every aspect of Clean India Movement.How women contributed in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and inspired people by finding out innovative ways to spread the cleanliness message. School girls offer to give up their jewellery for a toilet. This is exactly what happened in Bihar’s Buxar district where six girls from the 10th grade gave up their gold jewellery. Despite coming from well-off families, they grew up in houses without toilets and decided to use this novel of protest to convince their parents to build a toilet at home. 105yearoldladybuildsatoilet. 105-year old Kunwar Bai had never seen a toilet for a century, and had been eliminate waste in the open all through. It was only recently that she sold her goats and built 2 toilets in her house. The Swachh Abhiyan Mascot was instrumental in spreading awareness on open defecation in her village, Kothari in Dhamtari, Chhattisgarh. Impressed by her effort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated and touched her feet. Anadventurousrouteto‘Swachhta’ Shilpika Gautam embarked on an inspiring journey across the Ganga. She is the world’s first woman to have stand up paddle-boarded across the Ganga, from source to sea. En-route she stopped at various towns and villages along the river’s banks to spread the message of pollution, cleanliness and sanitation. 4. Driving out waste material Manisha Bhandare is a proud member of waste management co-operative in Pune called Solid Waste Collection and Handling, The 35year old learned to drive so that she could help her city drive out waste. Along with her fellow workers, she collects up to one tonne of waste every day and hands over the waste to the Pune Municipal Corporation. Jharkhand Sets a Record Of Constructing 1,70,000 Toilets In Just 20 Days. When it comes to ranking the states on the basis of their performance in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Jharkhand comes up as an average performer. Since the launch of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014, district administrations in Jharkhand have failed to at implementing toilet building programmes on a scale or speed that the state would like. Understanding the importance of the campaign gravity of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and in terms of toilet construction, recently 1.5 million women in Jharkhand took the lead and ran a hygiene campaign for a month. About 1 lakh Sakhi Mandals, 14 lakh women, 2 thousand women Panchayat representatives, 29 thousand water carriers, 10 thousand female cleaners and 50 thousand women mason were involved in this campaign. Together they set a record of constructing 1 lakh 70 thousand toilets in just 20 days.Despite this mammoth effort Jharkhand still has a long way to go to achieve its target of open defecation free state by October 2018. As of now, only three districts, 56 blocks, 11,387 villages and 1,378gram panchayat have been declared free from the practice of open defecation. 6. 10,000 Toilets In Just Two Weeks, This Karnataka District Made It Possible, Thanks To CEO Of Zila Panchayat Hepshiba Rani KorlapatiWith a population of 18 lakh in its rural areas, Kalaburagi is one of the most populous districts of Karnataka. Its biggest challenge was a mere 20 per cent sanitation coverage. But district administration headed by Hepshiba Rani Korlapati, CEO of Zila Panchayat, took on the challenge of eradicating the problem of open defecation and building 10,000 toilets in twoweeks. The massive toilet building program kick-started on the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5, last year.For the administration, the challenge was not to just build toilets but to make villagers get over superstitions like digging the earth when there is a pregnant woman in the house is a bad omen. Overcoming various such superstitions and fighting age-old habits of open defecation, the administration managed to convince 130 households with pregnant women to participate in the project.From digging pits to setting up structures for toilets to carrying construction materials and finally building a toilet, the CEO supervised each and every aspect of this massive exercise. With all this, the district succeeded in building 10,560 toilets by June 19, 2017.Kalaburagi district along with the state of Karnataka will declare itself free from the practice of open defecation on this International Women’s Day. As of now, the state has already achieved 86 per cent open defecation free status. Till date, more than 34 lakh toilets have been constructed in the rural area and around 1 lakh toilets have been built in urban areas. 7. India’s Cleanest CityMayor Malini Gaur distributing portable bins for cars in IndoreThe largest city of Madhya Pradesh, Indore, is currently headed by Mayor Malini Gaur and she is shouldering the responsibility of ensuring that Indore retains the cleanest city of India title this year too in Swachh Sarvekshan like last year. For this Ms Gaur is leading various initiatives of the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC). After pushing for waste segregation at the source for last two years, the corporation has now started gifting two dustbins to the newlyweds who get married in community weddings organised by the civic body under the Mukhyamantri Kanyadan Yojna. In addition to the unique wedding presents, the couples tying the knot take eight pheras as opposed to traditionally seven pheras, signifying the seven wedding vows. The extra vow is the commitment of the couple to the clean Indore. In additions to segregation of waste, to encourage citizens to keep their city clean and discourage the habit of throwing garbage from the car, IMC has launched small portable bins for cars costing Rs. 35. 8. Meet The ODF Master, Nidhi Choudhari, Who Helped Palghar District Achieve ODF TargetNidhi Choudhari, who was appointed as a CEO of a tribal district back in April 2016, had a list of challenges and problems prevailing in the district to tackle. From the low level of sanitation to the continuous rise in instances of malnutrition, to having a stiff target to build 1,04,000 toilets for the district to go ODF. Making toilet construction as her mission, Ms Choudhari collaborated with UNICEF and the government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to build toilets in the district. From going door to door to make people aware about the pivotal role a toilet plays in an individual’s life to asking people to stand up for themselves and construct a toilet, Ms Choudhari did it all. Today, she has not only built more than the number of toilets required, but her district has been declared free from the practice of open defecation.Palaghar district hit the headlines from another women swachh warrior, Sushila Khurkute, who when she was seven months pregnant dug the rocky ground outside her house for three consecutive days to build a toilet. For her swachh efforts and determination to have a toilet at her place, Sushila was honoured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year on International Women’s Day. She was also declared the face of Maharashtra’s Open Defecation Free Project.And many more such people who’s name never came into any newspaper or magazine but their efforts cannot be unseen salute to all who supported and motivated each other at ground level to participate in such a initative. Because of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan many people have been empowered as well as understood their duties on cleanliness. “Ek neya sawera layenge pure bharat ko swach aur samrudh banayenge” with this moto we will conclude here.