Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 Provides For Aspirational Toilets In High Footfall Areas: Government

New Delhi: The second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission provides for “aspirational toilets” in high-footfall places like tourist locations and places of significance, according to a senior official of the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Roopa Mishra, Joint Secretary and National Mission Director, Swachh Bharat Mission in the ministry said this in a recorded video message played at an event here that brought multiple stakeholders together from the fields of industry, government, innovators, among others.

The Mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014. Ms. Mishra said,

Phase one of the mission has seen an incredible journey in the sanitation sector… Eight years have passed and an incredible chapter of urban and rural sanitation has been added in the journey of sanitation. With the launch of Swachh Bharat 2.0, this is a time where “we need to aspire to go to the next step

Also Read: Folk Songs With A Swasth Message: For A First Time In India, A Music Album On Hygiene Gets Launched

In urban areas today, there’s a high scope of innovative services that focus on functionalisation of public and community toilets, Ms Mishra said.

The ministry official said, in these eight years, Indian cities have grown through urban expansion and people’s aspirations are also growing. She said,

With aspirations of people rising, the challenges of public toilets in urban areas meeting the different requirements has increased manifold. How can we as a fraternity innovate and provide for these requirements? Swach Bharat 2.0 provides for aspirational toilets in high-footfall places like tourist locations, and places of significance

The vision of the Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 in five years is to have garbage-free cities, and that can never be completed without access to functional toilets, Ms Mishra said.

A link aspiration of this second phase of the mission would be that every Indian city should have at least an ODF++ certification. The essence of this certification is that every Indian city in the next five years — by 2026 — must have functional community and public toilets, she added.

Also Read: Sanitation Workers, The Essential Yet Neglected Workforce

In her recorded address, Ms Mishra also said that on August 15 this year, when the nation was celebrating completion of 75 years of Independence.

We saw a lovely chapter added to India’s sanitation journey. More than 500 cities declared themselves as ‘safai mitra surakshit’. And, this is about the commitment of moving from manholes to machine holes, adopting technology for desludging and not to bring hazard to human beings in the cleaning of septic tanks and sewers. And, 500 is just the beginning, we are committed that within the next two years, we will provide and see that every Indian city will have the provision for equipment, and trained manpower, compliance grievance helpline, and a significant amount of awareness building, so that as a nation we move towards mechanised desludging of septic tanks and sewers, thus fulfilling the vision of manholes to machine holes

The event was organised by the Toilet Board Coalition, a business-led partnership which is accelerating business solutions to the sanitation crisis.

Also Read: Under Its ‘Health Cannot Wait’ Campaign, NGO Smile Foundation Is Promoting Hygiene And Sanitation Amid COVID-19

Sapna Poti, Director Strategic Alliances, Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the government of India said innovation happened during COVID-19 pandemic too, and the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser had also run a challenge, seeking ideas from innovators on disposal of bio-medical waste.

She also spoke of the 13 centres of excellence spread across various institutions, including at IIT Patna, IIT Palakkad, and TERI, set up in collaboration with industry partners.

She said the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser can facilitate this collaboration when approached by stakeholders.

Priyanka Tanwar, Toilet Board Coalition India Chair, said,

This is a very interesting time for us at the Coalition. Starting from the Swachh Bharat Mission, we have witnessed a stronger, more conducive ground to accelerate work towards a circular sanitation economy in India

Also Read: Half Of Health Care Facilities Globally Lack Basic Hygiene Services: UN Report

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.

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