Attaining sanitation for all
PM Modi’s push is laudable. But there is room for improvement
The Narendra Modi government’s flagship programme, the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), completed five years on Wednesday, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The SBM has two key elements: One, building toilets, and two, ensuring behavioural change. The first one was done with government funding. But the real challenge was the second one, given embedded notions of purity, pollution, and caste.
The political support to the programme, which has a cascading impact on health, education, and women’s empowerment, has been laudable and unprecedented. The prime minister relentlessly spoke about the importance of the programme and sanitation. In the past four years, India has built 100 million toilets in about 0.6 million villages, and another 6.3 million in its cities. There was also a discernible behavioural change, largely due to the demand-centric approach of the SBM and the communication efforts. But as SBM moves into its second phase, certain issues need to be tackled. First, SBM must never be coercive. There have been reports of officials, keen to meet stiff toiletbuilding targets, pushing people too hard. This will impact the long-term sustainability of the programme. Second, the quality of toilet construction is an issue. If the waste-disposal pit is not built to specifications, the waste will contaminate water and soil. Post-SBM programmes must teach people what to do when the these toilet pits fill up. Third, the SBM currently operates on a reimbursement model. Households are expected to build toilets from their own funds and are then reimbursed ~12,000-15,000. Many families find it difficult to raise funds. Fourth, even with the impetus to build toilets, households in urban slums struggle to do so. Many sanitation experts have suggested community toilets. And fifth, while the government has invested in communication, many people are unaware of the paperwork that is needed to apply for the construction of toilets under the sanitation programme.
Sanitation for all is a key Sustainable Development Goal. If India doesn’t reach its sanitation goal, the world will also fail to do so. It is on the right path, and the government deserves credit.