Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 2 hailed the Swachh Bharat Mission as the largest and most successful people’s movement of the 21st century, emphasising its impact on public health and wellbeing.
Addressing an event to mark 10 years of the mission, PM Modi said that mass participation has transformed the campaign into a new path to prosperity for India.
“You all made the Swachh Bharat Mission a success,” the prime minister said while noting that over 28 crore people took part in more than 27 lakh events organised in just 15 days during the ‘Sewa Pakhwada’.
He said chief ministers, ministers, and other representatives played key roles in this national effort and underlined that “continuous efforts can only lead to a clean India.”
During the event, the prime minister inaugurated projects worth around โน10,000 crore under the Swachh Bharat and AMRUT 2.0 missions which include water and sewage treatment plants across several states.
“When people talk about 21st-century India even after 1,000 years, they will definitely remember the Swachh Bharat Mission,” Modi said, emphasising the lasting legacy of the cleanliness campaign.
The prime minister also criticised previous governments for neglecting basic sanitation.
“They never considered dirt and lack of toilets as national issues. It was like they made dirt a part of their lives,” he said.
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He said those who used Mahatma Gandhi for their political benefits and vote bank have now forgotten his subject of interest. He said that filth and lack of toilets were never considered as a national issue.
As a result, said the prime minister, there were no discussions about it in society and lack of cleanliness became a part of life. He also recalled facing criticism after raising this issue from the ramparts of the Red Fort.
“The first job of a prime minister is to make the lives of the common man easy. I talked about toilets and sanitary pads, and today, we see the results,” he said.
The prime minister highlighted that more than 60 per cent of the population was forced to defecate in the open a decade ago, which he called as an insult to Dalits, backward classes and tribal communities, and a major source of inconvenience for women.
Modi noted the “sufferings of mothers, sisters and daughters due to the lack of toilets” and also pointed out the threats to their health and safety. He said that the filth caused by open defecation had endangered the lives of children and was a major cause of child mortality.
He also cited studies and reports that underline the positive outcomes of the mission.
An international study has shown that the Swachh Bharat Mission is saving the lives of 60,000 to 70,000 children annually, while a UNICEF report indicates that over 90 per cent of women feel safer due to the construction of household toilets, he said.
Additionally, the World Health Organization has credited the mission with saving 300,000 lives between 2014 and 2019 by reducing deaths from diarrhoea, Modi added.
The prime minister also noted a shift in attitudes toward sanitation workers, stating that the Swachh Bharat Mission has brought them respect and pride.
“Cleanliness is not just a one-day task but a lifelong value,” he said, urging citizens to pass on the value of cleanliness from generation to generation and treat their surroundings with the same care as places of worship.
Modi said steps have been taken to eliminate the problems arising from manual cleaning of septic tanks and informed that the government is working together with private and public sectors in this regard.
“We are also encouraging professionals and start-ups,” he added.
He added that currently about 5000 start-ups related to clean-tech were registered.
Modi emphasised that many new opportunities were being created in the water and sanitation sector, be it waste to wealth, collection and transportation of waste, reuse and recycling of water.
“Swachh Bharat Mission has given a significant boost to the circular economy in India”, the prime minister said highlighting that waste generated from households is now being converted into valuable resources.
He added that this mission had revealed the true energy and potential of the people to him.
Modi said that the country should know that there are lakhs of people who had donated their money and valuable time to make this mission successful though their faces were never shown on TV or their names were never published in the newspaper.
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He added that he was thankful to the people along with the industries involved in the production of single-use plastic for joining hands and supporting the initiative.
He also thanked the political parties that supported the initiative. “They must have missed out on criticising me for it but now that I have mentioned it they might start criticising,” he said.
The prime minister highlighted that more than 12 crore toilets were built in the country and the scope of toilet coverage reached 100 per cent from less than 40 per cent previously.
Highlighting the public awareness brought about by the Swachh Bharat Mission, Modi cited the example of child deaths in Gorakhpur due to brain fever that were addressed with emphasis on cleanliness.
To mark the landmark day, Modi also went to a school to take part in a cleanliness drive along with girl students.
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During an interaction with the students, he asked them about the benefits of cleanliness and spoke about the problems, including diseases, that are caused by a lack of toilets. He said his government’s focus on building toilets in schools with separate toilets for girls led to a drastic fall in their dropout rates.
He encouraged them to practice yoga and spoke about the benefits of the Sukanya Samriddhi scheme, under which bank accounts opened for a girl child provide a higher interest rate to help them in higher studies and marriage as well.
The prime minister asked them to shun plastic carry bags and said cleanliness should not be seen as work for one day but a daily habit.
