PM Modi appeals to integrate thought process and systems to accomplish Swachh Bharat Mission by 2019

Recounting three Years of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan,  Prime Minister Narendra Modi while celebrating the third anniversary of the mission said that everyone should dedicate themselves towards a clean India as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri and that  Swachh Bharat Mission is about both ‘Vyavastha’ (systems) and ‘Vichar’ (thought process and mindset).

He envisioned that the dream of a Swachh Bharat will be realised by 125 crore Indians, not a select group of leaders or officials and expressed optimism saying, “ India has accepted the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and has turned it into a people’s movement due to the ‘Siddhi’ of Swachhagrahis.”

Centre launched its ambitious project Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on October 2, 2014 to realize the dream of Mahatma Gandhi towards Clean India. As a result of the initiative, six states, 214 districts and more than 2 and half lakh villages have achieved 100 per cent sanitation.

On the occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the achievements of the Clean India campaign.  From underlining the role of women and children in the swachhta campaign, quoting a UNICEF sanitation report to labelling the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan as people’s movement, he said that according to a UNICEF report, a survey of 10,000 households found that each household without a toilet ends up spending Rs. 50,000 annually on medical and other health issues.

“Till we see the issue of swachhta from the eyes of women, we won’t be able to realise its importance. Cleanliness is something we all desire. Even when we’re busy doing other things, we subconsciously look out for cleanliness. Therefore it is a natural instinct for us to be clean and want cleanliness,” he added.

India faces challenges in terms of sanitation coverage but that does not mean we run away from these. We will face them and work to overcome these challenges. Children are the biggest Swachh ambassadors, he further added saying that a positive spirit of competition has been created due to Swachh Bharat Mission. We see this in the cleanliness rankings and how organisations are working on cleanliness to improve their rankings.