Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh have become top five performing States with the highest number of open defecation free (ODF) villages in the country having sustainable waste management facilities under Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (SBM-G), the central flagship. This gives them the tag of ODF-Plus.
The Union Rural Development Ministry on Friday said 1,01462 villages have declared themselves as ODF Plus. “These villages are sustaining their ODF status and have systems in place for managing solid and/or liquid waste and they would continue on their sanitation journey as they work towards making their villages cleaner, greener and healthier,” said an official from the Ministry. He explained that “provision of toilets has led to the need to manage faecal waste. Also, with potable water supply, more greywater is being generated that needs to be treated and reused; and with lifestyle changes and the use of packaged food products, the menace of plastic waste is rearing its ugly head in rural areas and that needs to be managed effectively.
“And this is what the second Phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G) is about – to appropriately manage all types of waste that will not only make our villages clean, but also creating avenues for generating incomes for rural households and creating new livelihood opportunities, while fulfilling the requirements of the Sustainable Development Goals.”
In the ODF Plus - Aspiring category, currently there are 54734 villages in which all households and institutions besides having access to sanitation through individual household latrines, have arrangements for either SWM or LWM; those in ODF Plus – Rising are 17121 villages which have arrangements for both LWM and SWM in addition to the criteria in Aspiring. Those that are declared ODF Plus - Model are 29607 villages which have all the above and where IEC messages are prominently disseminated and displayed. This means, at least 99640 villages across the country have arrangements for solid waste management; 78937 having liquid waste management facilities; and almost 57312 villages having both functional solid and liquid waste management plants.
The objectives of the first phase of the mission are eradication of manual scavenging, generating awareness and bringing about behaviour change regarding sanitation practices and building capacity at the local level.
The second phase of the mission aims to sustain the open defecation free status and improve the management of solid and liquid waste, while also working to improve lives of sanitation workers. Under scheme, the Government provides subsidies for constructing toilets, waste management structures, and awareness campaigns to bring behaviour change, said the official.