About Us

About Us
Vision and Objectives
Key Features of SBM(G) phase II

To accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and to put focus on sanitation, the Prime Minister of India had launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on 2nd October 2014. The mission was implemented as nation-wide campaign/Janandolan which aimed at eliminating open defecation in rural areas during the period 2014 to 2019 through mass scale behavior change, construction of household-owned and community-owned toilets and establishing mechanisms for monitoring toilet construction and usage.

Under the mission, all villages, Gram Panchayats, Districts, States and Union Territories in India declared themselves "open-defecation free" (ODF) by 2 October 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, by constructing over 100 million toilets in rural India.

To ensure that the open defecation free behaviours are sustained, no one is left behind, and that solid and liquid waste management facilities are accessible, the Mission is moving towards the next Phase II of SBMG i.e ODF-Plus. ODF Plus activities under Phase II of Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) will reinforce ODF behaviours and focus on providing interventions for safe management of solid and liquid waste in villages.

Vision

The aim of Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) phase II is to ensure the open defecation free behaviours are sustained

Objectives

Open defecation free behaviours are sustained and no one is left behind.
Solid and liquid waste management facilities are accessible and reinforcing ODF behaviours and focus on providing interventions for safe management of solid and liquid waste in villages
To encourage cost effective and appropriate technologies for ecologically safe and sustainable sanitation.
To develop, wherever required, community managed sanitation systems focusing on scientific Solid & Liquid Waste Management systems for overall cleanliness in the rural areas.

To create significant positive impact on gender and promote social inclusion by improving sanitation especially in marginalized communities

Strategy

The focus of the Strategy is to move towards a ‘Swachh Bharat’ by providing flexibility to State governments, as sanitation is a State subject, to decide on their implementation policy, use of funds and mechanisms, taking into account State specific requirements. The Government of India’s role is essentially to complement the efforts of the State governments through the focused programme being given the status of a Mission, recognizing its dire need for the country.

The key elements of the Strategy include

Augmenting the institutional capacity of districts for undertaking intensive behaviour change activities at the grassroots level
Strengthening the capacities of implementing agencies to roll out the programme in a time-bound manner and to measure collective outcomes
Incentivizing the performance of State-level institutions to implement behavioural change activities in communities

Focus on Behaviour Change

Behaviour change has been the key differentiator of Swachh Bharat Mission and therefore emphasis is placed on Behaviour Change Communication (BCC). BCC is not a 'stand-alone' separate activity to be done as a 'component' of SBM-G, but about nudging communities into adopting safe and sustainable sanitation practices through effective BCC.
Emphasis is placed on awareness generation, triggering mindsets leading to community behaviour change and demand generation for sanitary facilities in houses, schools, Anganwadis, places of community congregation, and for Solid and Liquid Waste Management activities. Since Open Defecation Free villages cannot be achieved without all the households and individuals conforming to the desired behaviour of toilet use every day and every time, community action and generation of peer pressure on the outliers are key.

Foot Soldiers of Swachh Bharat

There is a need for a dedicated, trained and properly incentivized sanitation workforce at the GP level. An army of ‘foot soldiers’ or ‘Swachhagrahis’, earlier known as ‘Swachhata Doots’ is developed and engaged through existing arrangements like Panchayati Raj Institutions, Co-operatives, ASHAs, Anganwadi workers, Women Groups, Community Based Organisations, Self-Help Groups, water linemen/pump operators etc. who are already working in the GPs, or through engaging Swachhagrahis specifically for the purpose. In case existing employees of line departments are utilised, their original Line Departments are in clear agreement to the expansion of their roles to include activities under the Swachh Bharat Mission.

Sanitation Technologies

Appropriate participation of the beneficiary/communities, financially or otherwise in the setting up of the toilets is advised to promote ownership and sustained use, both at the household and community levels. The built-in flexibility in the menu of options is to give the poor and the disadvantaged families’ opportunity for subsequent upgrading of their toilets depending upon their requirements and financial position and to ensure that sanitary toilets are constructed, which ensure safe confinement and disposal of faeces. An illustrative list of technology options, with cost implications is provided to meet the user preferences and location-specific needs. While the Government provides flexibility in choosing the toilet technology considering area’s topography, soil conditions etc., properly constructed Twin-Pit is considered the most preferred technology.

Flexibility to States

States have flexibility regarding the utilization of the IHHL incentive. The provision of incentives for IHHLs for rural households is available to States (from the IHHL component) in addition to extensive motivational and behavioral change interventions (from the IEC component). This is also used to maximize coverage so as to attain community outcomes.

Monitoring Mechanisms

A robust monitoring arrangement has been put in place to monitor Open Defecation Free status of a village, the implementation of Solid and Liquid Waste Management projects as well as the construction and use of household toilets, school and Anganwadi toilets, and Community Sanitary Complexes. The monitoring also uses a robust community led system, like Social Audit.Community-based monitoring and vigilance committees will help in creating peer pressure. States decide the delivery mechanisms to be adopted to meet the community needs.

Verification of ODF Communities

The term ‘ODF’ has been defined by GoI and indicators for the same have been developed. To institute credible process to verify villages against these indicators, an effective verification mechanism is a must. As sanitation is a State subject, and States are the key entities in implementation of the programme, the mechanism for ODF verification are best evolved by the States themselves. The role of the Centre is to cross-share processes adopted by different States and evolve a mechanism to validate a small percentage of GPs/villages declared ODF by the States and further facilitate and guide the States where there is large difference in evaluation of Centre/State.

Sustaining ODF Communities

The achievement of ODF involves working on behaviour change to a great extent, sustenance of which requires concerted efforts by the community. Many districts and States have evolved parameters to maintain sustainability of ODF.