Swachh Bharat Gramin Vs Swachh Bharat Urban
When Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was launched in India in 2014 by the Indian government, one major issue came forward. The official bodies realized that the needs of rural India and urban India were very different from each other. The aims and objectives of the movement vis-a-vis sanitation in urban India were irrelevant to rural India. Thus, the government divided the movement in two parts: Swachh Bharat Gramin and Swachh Bharat Urban. In this article, we will go over what the two subcategories of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan entailed and what they aimed to achieve.
Swachh Bharat Urban: In metro cities of India, the major problem faced by government officials vis-a-vis sanitation and hygiene was waste management. There was not a proper system in place to handle all the waste produced by the domestic sector as well as the industrial sector. Thus, the government had to design a system which efficiently took care of the waste. In order to take care of the waste produced by the domestic sector, the government installed garbage trucks which collected trash from each and every house. Thus, people were reluctant to litter or throw their garbage in the open. Moreover, due to the collection of waste in one place, it also became easier for the government to dispose of it as well as recycle whatever was worth recycling. Moreover, the government also constructed public toilets in many cities as there was a lack of them. Thus, people stopped urinating in the open and began making use of the public toilets.
Swachh Bharat Gramin: In rural India, the needs of the people and the environment were totally different. The major issue was defecation in the open. People used to defecate in the open as there were no toilets in their home. This led to the spread of a variety of diseases. And many deaths occured due to these diseases which could have easily been prevented. The rural population did not understand the correlation between disease related deaths and defecation in the open. The government launched awareness programs which educated the rural population on the same. When the rural population realized the consequences of defecating in the open and how it was hurting them, they became more reluctant to do so.
The reason behind people not constructing toilets in their home was that Hindu households considered it sinful to have a toilet in home as they had rooms dedicated to worship. So, it was considered dirty to have a toilet in the homes where there were idols of Gods. To beat this superstition, the government began to have dialogue with the rural population on the same. Eventually, the rural population came around and people began constructing toilets in their homes, which led to a decrease in occurrences of defecation in the open.
All of this was achieved by the government with the help of private bodies as well as NGOs. Organizations like India Sanitation Coalition played an important role in bringing about a change in the condition of sanitation in rural as well as urban India.
