Out of the 2.4 billion people in the world who do not have proper access to improved sanitation, around 750 million live in India. Approximately 80 percent of them live in rural areas. These are some of the stats that prompted the World Bank to approve a 1.5 billion dollar loan to India towards the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
In rural India, over 500 million people defecate in the open, giving rise to illness, the spread of disease and preventable deaths. The loan, which will be disbursed over a period of five years, aims to end open defecation and ensure access to better sanitation by 2019.
The ideals of the Swachh Bharat Campaign are great, but there is till the matter of the need for a change in mindset. All the money in the world cannot ensure a cleaner India, if the people do not wish for change and resolve to make that change. The campaign is more than just clean toilets; It also has provisions to end littering and ensure clean roads and proper garbage management.
All this needs the citizen to get involved. In rurban and urban areas the Not In My Backyard syndrome exists. The hurdles to clean up the areas here are quite tedious. In the rural areas, awareness and education are key. If India can manage to tackle this logically, there is hope for a clean country, but it is certainly an uphill task.
