How can we, as common citizens, contribute to the

'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'?

Was it the role for politicians and celebs? Cant common people take it as a initiative and
help the mission to become successful?
ANSWER WIKI

Please do watch this video which explains

what u can do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...

63 Answers

Arushi Jamar, IIM Ahmedabad, PGP 2015-17

1. Print many of these posters.

Always carry 10-15 posters with you wherever you go.

Hand them out to any person you see throwing litter or pissing in public. This
will make them feel guilty or just embarrass them enough to not repeat such an
act.
(In fact give him a few extras too, and ask him to give it to the next person he
finds littering.)
2. Dustbins are a pre-requisite for cleanliness. If you find any public place (like
parks, major roads, bus stops, railway stations) without enough number of
dustbins, report this to the authority in charge, like the Municipal corporation
of your city, Indian Railways, etc.
Keep following up till they put dustbins there.
3. Print T-shirts and caps with this logo and a cleanliness message. You can get Tshirts printed for something like INR 150-200. Give these out to Rickshaw
pullers, auto drivers, tea-stall vendors, construction labourers, beggars,or any

one who's seen working on the roads.

While giving them out, explain to the person what 'Swachh Bharat' means, how a
clean India would mean a healthy living for them and their kids and how he can
contribute to it. (Ask him to wear the t-shirt as well :P)
4. If you're working with any organisation, start this tradition of a 'Cleanliness
drive' with your employees/ students/ co-workers/ classmates. Once a month or
once in two months.
You can clean your office/campus, and your surrounding areas on this day. You
can beautify any nearby corner, clean it, paint it, etc.
You can also shoot videos of these activities and post them on social media. (Will
be good marketing for your organisation too :P)
5. Awareness is very important. Talk about 'Swachh Bharat' to at least one person
everyday and educate him about how he should contribute. This could be your
driver, your maid, newspaper seller, auto-driver, any other vendor, or any
random person you see in the bus or the metro. Do this till you run out of people
to educate about cleanliness :P

Anurag Chandak, Environmental Engineer, Social Entrepreneur, Birder and Sports lover
I realized that ragpickers form the largest faceless organization that can make or break the
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Ragpickers sell the waste to recyclers for money. However, since
the task is very cumbersome, needing them to bend to collect waste, they only collect the
heavier plastics and paper. Hence, inspite of their efforts, there is still a lot of waste
everywhere in India.
I realized that if I could help reduce efforts by ragpickers to collect waste, then they will
collect a lot more. Its a win-win situation, as more waste is being sent to recyclers, and the
ragpicker earns more as well. So, we came up with a patented device of our own, called
Gandhi Chhadi (view the video at Gandhi Chhadi: Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan ) . The device
allowed them to collect waste in a standing position, in a hygienic manner and brings some
dignity to their work in everyone's view. We distributed a few to ragpickers in my
hometown, and there has been a noticable difference in our surroundings. Also, whenever
any one of them meets me, they are usually thankful for reducing their workload, in spite of
increasing their daily earnings.

The device has now gained popularity amongst everyone, from cleanliness enthusiasts to
municipal workers to morning walkers. In our first 50 days, we have been able to mark
atleast some presence in all these cities.

I now do this as a commercial venture, working on the slightest of margins, all for the dream
of a Clean India
Few other features:
1. Adjustable height on stick
2. Packed size is 60 cms only
3. Completely safe. No pointed objects projecting outside when carrying.
4. Low cost, under Rs.250/3,055 views 14 upvotes Written 10w ago

Anand Joshi
I will share my personal story...
I was in a sleeper class Pune - Nagpur train with a young married couple with two of their
pretty 5 year old daughters. You know, the newly married, working class, phoren return,
Nike shoes and English speaking types. I had a couple of packets of chips and biscuits with
me, while the family were carrying a lot of them. As the train left the station, they started
eating, and of course started to throw them out the window.
Of course, as there are no dustbins at an absolute arm's length (not to mention dustbins
placed at every station right outside your coach), we are obliged to throw it right outside the
window, as you enjoy the nature, the green mountains and the beautiful fields outside.
Disgusted as I felt, I was too tired for an altercation. Moving ahead, as I started feeling
hungry, I too opened my pack of chips and kept the wrapper back inside my bag, so that I
could throw it at the next station. Meanwhile, their literal disregard for anything under the
sun made my heart ache. I couldnt take it anymore, and politely (in Hindi) asked the
husband to deposit the plastic wrappers and anything that they wanted to throw with me. I

will take care of the mess. (You know, as there were kids around, so no profanities).
To my utter astonishment, he sniggers and tells me, Phenk do na idhar hi baahar. Aap bhi
kya tension lete ho? (Throw it outside. Nobody cares and so shouldnt you).
I had completely lost it by now. I was game for a full on fight. (as well as someMC-BC vaani,
but like I said, kids were around listening keenly and smiling). I somehow drank my ire, and
calmly replied.
Nahi kar sakta na, sir. Woh kya hain na, main well-educated hoon.
Computer Engineer hoon. Toh aise hi nahi phenk sakta. I am sorry to bother
you. Please carry on.
(Cant do it, Sir. I am well-educated. A computer engineer. So, cant throw it just like that.)
Aah, the look on his face. And his wife. And of course the lovely children.
I absolutely ravished every moment of that silence that continued for the rest of the
journey.
And yes, not a single piece of litter was not thrown from that compartment after that.
Lesson well delivered. Hopefully for the rest of their lives.
The idea is to do your bit, and if possible spread the message.
Suger-coated or not is completely your prerogative.
EDIT:
'Humbled' would be the apt word. Thanks guys.
Another quick instance.
I am riding a bicycle, and stop at a traffic signal. A bigshot Honda Accord stops right beside
me. Anyway, I am too busy in my music when I see him taking a bottle of mineral water, and
believe me, he started to wash the car's windscreen with that same water. I was amazed at
the IQ level, but chose to ignore. His girl is sitting right beside, doing something on the
phone.
And then, he just throws the bottle on the road. A couple of bikers are also stationed nearby,
but nobody notices or cares.
I took a strong look at the bottle (I know that he and the girl are looking at me).
And then, I looked at him in the eye, gave him a 'thumbs-up' sign while
signalling at the bottle on the ground, followed by a slow-mo style clap, all the

while mouthing "Good Job. Keep it up."

Both were speechless. I dont know what happened next, as I was the first one to scoot off
instead of being with idiots like him.
But yes, he'll remember me.
Everytime he litters, he'll remember me. I know. ;).
42,493 views 1,198 upvotes Updated 25w ago

Anup Kumar Sahoo

Here is an example...How I did it.
7th Jan was my Birthday. I wanted to do something different. I searched for a very dirty
place in the area I stay. This dirty place was in front of a Grave Yard. People dump all their
Garbage here. All Garbage had converted into a 10 inch stinking mass with lots of insect
inside it. Let me share the picture.

I am an active member of BJP. I spoke to some local BJP worker. We in a group of 10

decided to clean it. First we swept the place nicely. Put all plastic in a bag to be dumped by
the local administration

Then comes the challenging part of digging the thick compost which was stinking like shit.
We realized it is a difficult job and would take long time. So we decided to remove only
plastic. The rest were good compost for trees.

We put some good soil on the compost. Then planted some trees, painted the wall.

A final touch was given by putting God's picture on the wall, so people will not throw
garbage there anymore. This place looks like a Garden now.

It took almost 4 hours for us. I was satisfied that I did something good on my birthday. This
was not a photo op. We are planning to clean whole ejipura like this.

160,703 views 7,836 upvotes Written 32w ago

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (English: Clean India Mission) is a national campaign by the Government
of India, covering 4041 statutory towns, to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country.[1]
[2][3]

This campaign was officially launched on 2 October 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi, where Prime
Minister Narendra Modi himself cleaned the road. It is India's biggest ever cleanliness drive and
3 million government employees and school and college students of India participated in this event. [4]
[5]
The mission was started by Prime Minister Modi, who nominated nine famous personalities for the
campaign, and they took up the challenge and nominated nine more people and so on (like the
branching of a tree). It has been carried forward since then with people from all walks of life joining it

History[edit]
The components of the programme as listed in the SBM guidelines are:

Construction of individual sanitary toilets (mostly pit latrines) for households below the
poverty line with subsidy (80%) where demand exists.

Conversion of dry latrines (pit latrines without a water seal) into low-cost sanitary latrines.

Construction of exclusive village sanitary complexes for women providing facilities for hand
pumping, bathing, sanitation and washing on a selective basis where there is not adequate land
or space within houses and where village panchayats are willing to maintain the facilities.

Setting up of sanitary marts.

Total sanitation of villages through the construction of drains, soakage pits, solid and liquid
waste disposal.

Intensive campaign for awareness generation and health education to create a felt need for
personal, household and environmental sanitation facilities.

End of manual scavenging of garbage.

With effect from 1 April 1999, the Government of India restructured the Comprehensive Rural
Sanitation Programme and launched the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC).
To give a fillip to the Total Sanitation Campaign, effective June 2003 the government launched an
incentive scheme in the form of an award for total sanitation coverage, maintenance of a clean

environment and open defecation-free panchayat villages, blocks and districts called Nirmal Gram
Puraskar.
Effective 1 April 2012, the TSC was renamed to Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA).
On 2 October 2014 the campaign was relaunched as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Objectives[edit]
This campaign aims to accomplish the vision of a 'Clean India' by 2 October 2019, the 150th birthday
of Mahatma Gandhi. It is expected to cost over 62000 crore(US$9.4 billion).[3][6]
Specific objectives are:

Elimination of open defecation

Conversion of unsanitary toilets to pour flush toilets (a type of pit latrine, usually connected to
two pits)

Eradication of manual scavenging

100% collection and processing/disposal/reuse/recycling of municipal solid waste

A behavioural change in people regarding healthy sanitation practices

Generation of awareness among citizens about sanitation and its linkages with public health

Supporting urban local bodies in designing, executing and operating waste disposal systems

Facilitating private-sector participation in capital expenditure and operation and maintenance

costs for sanitary facilities.

Nominees[edit]
Modi selected 9 public figures to propagate this campaign.[7][8] They are:

Sachin Tendulkar

Baba Ramdev

Kamal Hassan

Mridula Sinha

Priyanka Chopra

Anil Ambani

Salman Khan

Shashi Tharoor

The team of the TV series Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah

Manisha Koirala at Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in November 2014

Indian film actor Aamir Khan supported and encouraged this initiative and said that he would be
happy if he is invited into this campaign.[9]Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu picked up
a broom to help clean the cyclone-hit port city of Visakhapatnam in the southern state of Andhra
Pradesh, as part of the cleanliness campaign.[10][11]

Brand ambassadors[edit]
Venkaiah Naidu listed brand ambassadors in various fields:

Pawan Kalyan[12]

S. P. Balasubrahmanyam

Amala (actress)

K. Kavitha[12]

Gunupati Venkata Krishna Reddy

Suddala Ashok Teja

Pullela Gopichand

Humpy Koneru

Galla Jayadev

Nithin

V. V. S. Laxman

J. Rameshwar Rao

Shivlal Yadav

B. V. R. Mohan Reddy

On 25 December 2014, Prime Minister Modi nominated nine people including

Comedian Kapil Sharma,

Former captain of Indian cricket team Sourav Ganguly

Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi for taking forward his 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan'.

Padmanabha Acharya, Nagaland Governor

Sonal Mansingh, classical dancer

Ramoji Rao of Eenadu group

Aroon Purie of the India Today group.

He also nominated some organisations, including the Institute of Chartered Accountants of

India, Eenadu and India Today besides 'dabbewale' of Mumbai, who deliver home-made food to
lakhs of people in the city.[clarification needed]
On 8 November 2014, Modi carried the message to Uttar Pradesh and nominated another set of
nine people for the state.[13][14]

Akhilesh Yadav

Swami Rambhadracharya

Manoj Tiwari

Mohammad Kaif

Deviprasad Dwivedi

Raju Srivastava

Suresh Raina

Kailash Kher

More than 3 million government employees and school and college students are to participate in the
drive.[4][15]

Swachh Bharat Run[edit]

A Swachh Bharat Run was organized at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on 2 October 2014. According to a
statement from the Rashtrapati Bhavan around 1500 people participated and the event was flagged
off by President Pranab Mukherjee. Participants in the run included officers and their families.[16]

Swachh Bharat apps[edit]

app developers came up with ideasnamed praneeth duley to support the mission using mobile
technologies. The Times of India published an article on how "Desi companies beat Facebook in
'Swachh' apps race".[17] Vocativ wrote of one such app that it could change the relationship between
government and people.[18]

Real-time monitoring[edit]
The government will be launching a nationwide real-time monitoring system for toilets constructed
under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. For this the government of India is bringing awareness among
the people through quite good advertisements . With this system, the government aims to attain a
100% open defecation free India by 2019.[19]

Swachh Bharat short film[edit]

NIT Rourkela PhD students and Sacred Heart School Students,Tumkur have made a short film on
Swachh Bharat, conveying the message that Swachh Bharat is not a one-day event but should be
part of life, in order for the goal of a clean India to be achieved. [20]
The Indo Nepal Doctors Association has also taken inspiration from the Prime Minister of India and
on 3 January 2015 launched Swachh Bharat Nepal - Swasth Bharat Nepal Abhiyan at the IndoNepali border region of Sunauli-Belihiya, which is the entry to the birthplace of the Buddha, Lumbini,
Nepal.

Construction of toilets[edit]
Construction of toilets is one aspect of the Swachh Bharat programme. The programme aims to
make India "open defecation free" by 2019. It plans to construct 12 crore toilets in rural India by
October 2019, at a projected cost of 1.96 lakh crore (US$30 billion).[21] Prime Minister Narendra
Modi spoke of the need for toilets in his 2014 Independence Day speech stating, "Has it ever pained
us that our mothers and sisters have to defecate in open? Poor womenfolk of the village wait for the
night; until darkness descends, they can`t go out to defecate. What bodily torture they must be
feeling, how many diseases that act might engender. Can't we just make arrangements for toilets for
the dignity of our mothers and sisters?" Modi also spoke of the need for toilets in schools during the
campaign for 2014 Jammu and Kashmir state elections stating, "When the girl student reaches the
age where she realises this [lack of female toilets in the school] she leaves her education midway. As
they leave their education midway they remain uneducated. Our daughters must also get equal
chance to quality education. After 60 years of independence there should have been separate toilets
for girl students in every school. But for the past 60 years they could not provide separate toilets to
girls and as result the female students had to leave their education midway." [22]
The Government is conducting the scheme in concurrence with the Indira Awaas Yojana, a rural
housing scheme. Although, the Swachh Bharat programme began on 2 October 2014, the
government had begun constructing toilets prior to that date. In the 12th Five Year plan (201217),
the previous UPA government allocated 37159 crore(US$5.6 billion) for rural sanitation under its
Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan scheme. The UPA used 4724 crore (US$710 million) of allocated funds,

leaving the Modi government with32435 crore (US$4.9 billion). The programme has also received
funding and technical support from the World Bank, corporations as part of corporate social
responsibility initiatives, and by state governments under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya
Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan schemes.[21] As of May 2015, 14 companies including Tata Consulting
Services, Mahindra Group and Rotary International have pledged to construct 3,195 new toilets. As
of the same month, 71 Public Sector Undertakings in India supported the construction of 86,781 new
toilets.[23]
Between April 2014 and January 2015, 31.83 lakh toilets were built. Karnataka led all States in
construction of toilets under the programme, while Punjab built the least. [21]

Criticism[edit]
Criticisms of the campaign include:
Some regard the motives of Prime Minister Modi as purely political. The prime minister nominated
people who were supposed to do some cleaning-up. They would then nominate others, and so
slowly the whole of India would be involved. Thus, anyone seeing a participant in the scheme,
especially a celebrity, would inevitably link their actions to Modi, building up his reputation. [24]
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is not a new programme. Launched in 1986 as the Central Rural Sanitation
Programme, the scheme later became the Total Sanitation Campaign (1999) and Nirmal Bharat
Abhiyan (2012). Some regard it as merely a renaming.[25]
There has been a problem of corruption in delivery of facilities such as toilets and latrines since the
launch of the Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) 1986. In rural areas BDOs, GP president,
secretaries, and others take bribes from poor Indians to provide them, and the poorest are unable to
obtain them because they cannot afford the bribes.
The NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India Aayog), formerly called the Planning
Commission, is accused of preparing the guidelines of the scheme based on false reports through
upward communication from people on-site such as BDO, GP presidents and secretaries; the
Chairman, Deputy Chairman and the other members of the Planning Commission are accused of not
checking the information by visiting the villages and physically seeing and talking with the
beneficiaries face to face.
The central government is said to be irresponsible in not ensuring that the toilets, latrines, etc. are
delivered, as the Ministry of Panchayati Raj closes grievance cases by transferring them to the state
government, and never examines the details of whether the state government settles them correctly