Vinod C Dixit
The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is the most significant cleanliness campaign by the Modi Government. Our PM Modi while launching the Swachh Bharat Mission has rightly said that “A clean India would be the best tribute India could pay to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150 birth anniversary in 2019.” He gave the mantra of ‘Na gandagi karenge, Na karne denge.' Picking up the broom to clean the dirt, to make Swachh Bharat Abhiyan a mass movement across the nation, Modi has given a message that people should neither litter, nor let others litter. He has already addressed the health problems that roughly half of the Indians families have to deal with due to lack of proper toilets in their homes.
Now Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has become a ‘Jan Andolan' receiving tremendous support from the people. Modi has reightly quoted that “According to the World Health Organization, an average of Rs. 6500 per person was lost in India due to lack of cleanliness and hygiene. Swachh Bharat would make a significant impact on public health and in safeguarding income of the poor, ultimately contributing to the national economy.” He had tried for clean India during his time by motivating people through his campaigns and slogans however it was only partially successful because of the limited involvement of the people of India. The father of nation, Mahatma Gandhi had always dreamed to make India a clean India and always put his hard efforts towards cleanliness in India. Swachh Bharat mission aims to construct individual sanitary latrines for household purposes especially for the people living below poverty line, converting dry latrines into low-cost sanitary latrines, providing facility of hand pumps, safe and secure bathing facility, setting up sanitary marts, constructing drains, proper disposal of solid and liquid wastes, enhancing health and education awareness, providing household and environmental sanitation facilities and many more.
Kudos to Modi for receiving the Goalkeepers Global Goals Award for his government's Swachh Bharat programme. The Goalkeepers award seeks to “bring together leaders from around the world to accelerate progress for ending poverty and fighting inequality.” There is no doubt that the Swachh Bharat campaign is now the world's largest behavioural change programme and no such campaign was seen or heard about in any other country in the recent past. Clean India would bring more tourists and enhance its economical condition.
Modi dedicated the award to those Indians who transformed the Swachh Bharat campaign into a “people's movement” and accorded topmost priority to cleanliness in their day-to-day lives. He has righlty said that What is important is the united efforts to make India clean and the development of a mindset in 1.3 billion Indians, and every single effort that people make for this effort.” The World Health Organisation had also acknowledged his government's efforts in this regard and said due to the Swachh Bharat campaign, a possibility was created to save three lakh human lives. As Modi said the campaign has not only improved the lives of crores of Indians, but it has also played a significant role in achieving the goals set by the UN.
It is surprising that inspite of his hectic schedule with the visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping, Modi cleaned the shores of the Kovalam beach during his morning stroll and the video went viral, drawing admiration from the people who already love the man and from those who have no tags attached and no agenda burdening them. It is also a fact that Modi keeps an eye for cleanliness even outside India, showing to the world that he practises what he preaches. During his visit in US, at Airport, a flower fell off the bouquet and to everyone's surprise, Modi bent down and picked it up himself. This clearly shows his attention towards the smallest things which shows his simplicity.
It is clear that the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is leaving no stones unturned in providing as well as improving cleanliness and sanitation facilities in India. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan aims at bringing behavioral changes in people. Let us motivate health practices by spreading cleanliness awareness among people and strengthening the cleanliness systems in our country.
Vinod Chandrashekhar Dixit
dixitpatrakar@yahoo.in
B-15 Jyoti-Kalash Society,
Jodhpur Tekra
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