Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a call to the nation on October 2, 2014 to make India a clean country in terms of hygiene and sanitation. More emphasis was given to dissuade people from open defecation and bring a change to global perception.
For that, direct financial assistance was given to the people through their respective State Governments for construction of toilets in their houses. A large section of the people constructed toilets and started using it. In the process of the mission, many Government organizations, NGOs. PSUs took active part in their own areas.
Now time has come to assess the impact of the programme. It may not be a total success but it is not a total failure either. One organization in Odisha, Pipili Sanskrutika Parishad, a socio- cultural organization in Puri district has a success story which is an encouragement for others.
On October 2, 2014, a group of volunteers, numbering nearly 300 took oath, administered by Prof Radhamohan, a Gandhian of the State, to take up the work in their own area and fulfil the desire of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. From that day onwards, the cleaning work is regularly undertaken by the group on all Sundays. So far, the organization has completed 181 cleaning camps at different places in the State and achieved the projected target of 500 hours of cleaning by October 2, 2019.
In the face of several adversities, the mission continued and the organization got a remarkable success. So far the organization has cleaned more than 80 villages, 15 heritage points, 17 drinking water points, four river bridges, 12 school premises, seven hospitals and 25 Government premises in their own locality and outside their district in the State of Odisha.
For implementing any programme funds are required. Particularly for this programme when Government financial support is given, people expect that some funds might have been given to this organization to carry out the work. But astonishingly the organization has not sought any funds from the Government. All expenditures to carry out the work have been borne by the voluntary contribution from the members and some like-minded people. The expenditure during the last five years is more than Rs 15 lakh. It is mainly on purchase of cleaning implements, transportation charges for the volunteers to the place of cleaning and refreshment charges. It is a rare thing to observe when people contributed to implement the Swatch Bharat Mission in their area on their own means.
The camps in the villages have been concentrated chiefly on cleaning the village roads and drinking water points. Most village roads are encroached with building materials and cattle shed waste. People in the villages do not bother for others' comfort and general sanitation. Worst part is to see the unhygienic drinking water points. Villagers use the common tube wells for bathing, cleaning of cloths and drinking purpose. Most tube well points are full of dense bushes around, with damaged drains and filth. Volunteers of the group clean the tube-well points, put bleaching around it and remove silt from the drains. They request the users to periodically clean the points. When a second camp is made in the same village much improvement is observed.
The organisation is having mostly young boys and girls as volunteers. They are spirited to do the cleaning work when they see elders with them. The elders often say, “It is your locality and its cleanliness is your business.”
Another praiseworthy work of the group is cleaning of the National Highway, river and canal bridges. National Highway-316 from Bhubaneswar to Puri passes through Pipili. There are three rivers and two canals with long bridges in the area. Cleanliness and maintenance of these bridges hardly attracts the attention of the authorities. Outlets on the bridge are chocked with sand and rubbish. Commuters face difficulties to pass through it. All these river and canal brides are cleaned several times by the group.
The toll plaza on the NH is a garbage point for all, venders as well as customers. In order to make this toll plaza plastic-free, a number of camps have been undertaken. Seeing the efforts of the people in cleaning the toll gate area, the National Highway Authorities has started cleaning the place realizing their part of the work. While cleaning the national highways, volunteers utter “Hygiene is for all concerned, when NH authorities don’t bother to clean, we clean and tell others about their negligence”.
Hospitals and its campus are also important points where several cleaning camps have been undertaken on a regular basis. Cleaning of the campus is seldom done in a year by the hospital authorities. No one keeps attention on the cleanliness of the surroundings of the hospital. Plastic bottles, broken syringes and patients' waste items are thrown all around the campus. Volunteers clean the area without hesitation, with a consolation that “it is their own area hospital; its cleanliness is their duty”.
To motivate the people in the villages for Swachhata, the organization conducts regular functions on completion of every 25 hours and 50 hours. Through these functions, a direct message is given to villagers on Swachh Bharat Mission, especially on the hazards of open defecation. Posters and banners are put in the villages for creating awareness on Swachhata.
Apart from its own locality, the Parishad has gone to Dangamal village, Bhitarkanika of Kendrapada district and Nalco Damanjodi and Koraput Town to hold seminar on the Swachh Bharat Mission and cleaning camp in some area. This gave a sense of participation to local people.
The success of the programme could be possible due to able guidance and direct participation of the advisers like Padma Shri Bhabani Charan Pattnayak, Prof Radhamohan, Lt Gen Narayan Mohanty and two dedicated scientists Dr PS Brahmanand and Dr Prabhakar Nanda of ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management, Bhubaneswar.
By executing the cleaning camps during the last five years, it is experienced that the direct beneficiaries of the programme are the young boys and girls. Particularly the girls in the villages now hesitate to go for open defecation and open bathing in the ponds. Swatch Bharat Mission can be made successful with sincere organisational effort and motivation. Now, it is not a distant dream. We should have patience to see the dream in reality.
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(The writer, a social activist, is secretary, Pipili Sanskrutika Parishad)