Swachh Bharat has turned 10. The success of the flagship clean India mission can be gauged from the fact that all Indian villages have turned free of open defecation from a meagre 37 percent when it was launched in 2014.
A recent study published in scientific journal Nature said that the Swachh Bharat Mission likely to have saved 60,000-70,000 infant lives every year. It found that districts which had increased toilet coverage by 30 percent had reduced infant mortality by 5.3 deaths per thousand live births and under five mortality by 6.8 deaths per 1,000 live births.
The average infant mortality rate in the country has fallen from 39 in 2014 to 28 per 1,000 live births in 2020, while under-five mortalities declined from 45 to 39 per 1,000 live births in this period.
A study by WHO found that India averted nearly 300,000 diarrheal deaths in 2019, compared with five years ago.
Next phase
The government has extended the mandate of the programme based on its success.
After turning around 6 lakh villages ODF-free, it has moved on to the next phase of sustaining visible cleanliness and installing liquid or solid waste management in each village and town.
From just about 6.8 percent of villages having a solid or liquid waste management facility in 2022, 95 percent have either of the two and over 50 percent have both.
State-wide differences, however, continued to exist and some of the states with largest populations need to be brought on board for faster adoption.
Kerala has 95 percent of its villages that have both waste management facilities and are visibly clean, but for Punjab, it is just 8 percent, while Bihar and Uttar Pradesh ranked below the national average of 52 percent.
Cities slow to adopt
In case of cities, while 4,576 cities are open defecation free only a third have sludge and sewage treatment. Moreover, just 64 cities have water-plus certification.
A Water+ certification evaluates that no untreated used water or faecal sludge is discharged into the water bodies or environment. It also mandates a maximum reuse of treated used water.
The government has set a 2026 deadline for the second iteration of mission, and work seems to be slow on some counts, especially when it comes to legacy dump sites. Over 50 percent of the waste from legacy dumpsites needs to be remediated and 70 percent area remains to be reclaimed.
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