Swachh Bharat Mission

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

“A clean India would be the best tribute India could pay to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150 birth anniversary in 2019,” said Shri Narendra Modi as he launched the Swachh Bharat Mission at Rajpath in New Delhi. On 2nd October 2014, Swachh Bharat Mission was launched throughout length and breadth of the country as a national movement. The campaign aims to achieve the vision of a ‘Clean India’ by 2nd October 2019.
The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is the most significant cleanliness campaign by the Government of India. Shri Narendra Modi led a cleanliness pledge at India Gate, which about thirty lakh government employees across the country joined. He also flagged off a talkathon at Rajpath and surprised people by joining in not just for a token few steps, but marching with the participants for a long way.

To clean the country, you have to address the problems of those who have spent a lifetime cleaning the country. You come out with your brooms and clean for a day. It
is a photo opportunity for most of you. But I want to ask, what of the remaining 364 days? Who will clean your dirt? In India, there is an inexorable link between
occupation and caste; the occupation of manual scavenging is linked with caste. We have to break the link between caste and occupation before we set out to achieve
Swachh Bharat. It cannot be achieved by preaching ‘cleanliness is next to godliness’. You have made certain communities from particular castes clean the country. If
that were not the case, why is it that for the last 4,000 years, the same communities are cleaning the countryside? Without breaking the chain, those who make Bharat
swachh will never be a part of the campaign. You will be projecting an illusion and to promote that, you will conceive of campaigns where the success of the illusion
will depend on how well you promote it.

Shri Ram Sansthan (SRS NGO )