Most answers to this question focus entirely on how the campaign has increased awareness

and changed the mindset of the Indian citizen. How everybody is now motivated to pick up
the broom and clean the streets. However, Id like to draw your attention to the main
aim of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) which was flagged off by PM Narendra Modi on
October 2 last year. The following aspects are what it seeks to tackle by 2019, to
mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi:
1. Complete eradication of open defecation in rural India
2. 100% sanitation coverage
Open Defecation
According to the 69th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS), 62.3% of rural India had
no separate bathrooms. Also, 49.9% of households in rural India did not have any drainage
system. You see the average floor area of these household dwellings does not go beyond 40
square meters and hence it is impossible to have a latrine in the same space where they
cook, clean and wash. Community toilets near slum settlements, which are almost always
owned and maintained by private agencies, are filthy and unviable and even charge
exorbitant rates for their use. So the residents are forced to squat by the roadsides and into
open drains to relieve themselves. NSS surveyed people in various parts of the country to
understand why they practiced open defecation and more than 60% of the respondents
blamed it on insufficient water supply and malfunctioning toilets. So, I think it is sufficiently
clear that changing the mindset is not the motivating factor towards abolishing the
practice of open defecation. Nevertheless, our ministers claim that innovative thinking
will put an end to open defecation and the Swachh Bharat Mission
website https://swachhbharaturban.gov.inproudly scrolls the following quote by the
Union Minister for Urban Development and Planning: Swachh Bharat was less about
building toilets and more about changing the mindsets and acknowledging the right of
everyone to a clean and healthy environment.
According to the official progress report, of the 1,06,543 community toilets sanctioned only
27,134 had been completed. Of the aim to achieve the solid waste processing figure of 50%
of the 1,45,085 tonnes of waste collected, only 17.8% has been achieved with Maharashtra,
which generates the highest amount of waste in a day, achieving as low as 10%. The target
of 2014-15 was making 42,828 gram panchayats open defecation free, but only
12,216 has reached the status so far.
Manual Scavengers and Safai Karamcharis
Mahatma Gandhi said: I may not be born again, but if it happens, I will like to be born into
a family of scavengers, so that I may relieve them of the inhuman, unhealthy and hateful
practice of carrying night soil. The Employment of Manual Scavengers and
Construction of Dry Latrine (Prohibition) Act was passed in 1993. It took another
decade for most states to adopt it but, even after 23 years, the practice is still rampant even
though some states do not acknowledge the fact that it even exists, despite evidence to the
contrary. Sadly, the Swachh Bharat Mission has failed to mention any action against this

social evil that even The Mahatma so dreaded.

A group of people employed by the government to clear out and clean sewer lines are
thesafai karamcharis. In the 1990s there were about 30,000 employees and now the figure
is almost half of that. In Delhi, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and the municipal corporations
have not hired a single permanent worker since 1999. Temporary workers and substitute
workers are employed from private labour contractors who neither hire enough people nor
give them timely payment which is less than a meager Rs.5000 per month. You
see, cleaning a sewer pipe or a drain is a highly technical work that requires assessing the
level of toxic gases like Methane, Hydrogen Sulphide and Carbon Monoxide and also the
presence of glass pieces and sharp metals. For this, various safety equipment such as safety
suits, gloves, helmets and essential suction equipment are required. But how many of us
have seen shirtless men knee deep in the gutter sifting through it with a bamboo
stick which is apparently the only tool given to a safai karamchari. NGOs estimate over 1000
deaths of manhole workers in a year from asphyxiation and other work hazards. Yet, these
people are provided no proper compensation or medical and risk allowances. Theres an
even greater social evil at play in the form of casteism. It is a known fact that only Dalits
are engaged in this work and are not even provided any technical training for the job since
apparently they have been doing it for generations. The system is rotten to the core.