“A clean India would be the best tribute India could pay to Mahatma Gandhi “ Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s words echoed across the country on October 2, 2014, as he launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan (SBA).
EK KADAM SWACHHATA KI AOR-
Swachh Bharat Mission is a nationwide campaign started 9 years back with the aim of making India clean. Today when we are completing 9 years of our pledge to make India clean, it’s interesting to look on the success stories which have been created and raised a beam of hope in millions and billions of people that if aim is right and fixed even with small steps anyone can achieve success.
Patora FSTP – the first in rural Chhattisgarh
Safe and effective faecal sludge management is the need of the hour as it can improve the
Quality of life whether in urban or rural areas by contributing to good health and a cleaner Environment. It is particularly important in rural areas, given that many villages do not have Underground drainage systems.
After trial runs and testing in August 2021, the Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant (FSTP) that was set up in Patora Gram Panchayat of Durg District in Chhattisgarh and has been operational since
September 2021, was officially handed over to the GP on 29th March 2023. The GP will henceforth take care of the operation and maintenance of the FSTP and will be able to earn revenue through providing desludging activities in Patora and other nearby villages.
The FSTP in Patora GP of Chhattisgarh caters to a population of 13,877 individuals and 2803 Households in 5 GPs namely, Patora, Chunkatta, Selud, Godpendri and Fekari.
Each week about 3 truckload owing to intensive IEC campaigns carried out earlier on the importance and need for faecal sludge management, the residents of the villages are aware of the numbers to call for honey-sucking.
Background:
Patora and surrounding gram panchayats are largely agricultural areas with about 65 percent pucca houses. About 57 percent of the workforce constitutes agricultural and other Labourers and 60 percent of families are engaged in farming as a primary or secondary source .
And own livestock, providing a good market opportunity for co-composting along with processedSludge. Further, Patora GP has one of the best revenue collection records as compared to other
GPs of the state during the last five years. The GP also has an active women’s SHG that works dedicatedly on hygiene and sanitation issues. In light of such reasons, Patora was the best choice for providing a treatment plant with limited external fund reliance.
Planted Drying Bed System: With 100 percent toilet coverage, the GP was declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) in 2017. Planted Drying Bed (PDB) System was selected for this village as it can tolerate inconsistent loads without too many operational requirements. Such a system does not require frequent desludging. It can be desludged once the bed is full which is after 2-3 years or more. The dried solids obtained after that period can be directly used for land application. Further, a PDB needs limited manpower and operations on a daily basis thus lowering the operations costs.
A PDB system consists of a screening chamber that screens large solid waste fragments like plastic, cloth, sanitary napkins etc; a Planted Drying Bed where solids dewatering, drying and stablisation
Takes place; Integrated Settler and Anaerobic Filter for treatment of PDB percolate/effluent.
Constructed Wetland for further treatment and oxygenation of percolate/effluent; and a PPolishing pond for disinfection and storage of treated effluent.
Narendra Modi launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on October 2, 2014 with the aim of making India open defecation free (ODF) by 2019. The objective is to provide every village and every person in India, toilet and sanitation facilities, including solid and liquid waste disposal systems, safe and adequate drinking water supply and cleanliness of villages, towns and cities.
Rajasthan :
Seven tribal villages of the State are now open defecation free. It has been reported that 60% of the population of the State of Rajasthan defecates in the open. The southern part of the State is dominated by the socio-economically backward classes of people as well as the tribals. In fact, Rajasthan ranks among the bottom five States in India for open defecation. But, it is heartening to see major changes taking place in south Rajasthan. Seven villages in the districts of Chittorgarh, Udaipur and Bhilwara have become open defecation free (ODF). These are Maton, Rela, Nevatalai, Chanawda, Dabok villages in Udaipur, Bansen village in Chittorgarh, and Parasrampura village in Bhilwara. Ten thousand households have given up the traditional habit of defecating in the open after the construction of pucca toilets at their homes. The villagers needed lot of counselling and pleading for the construction and use of toilets as they had the habit of relieving themselves in the open. They were poor and it was difficult to save money required to build their individual toilets. But, now these seven villages are proud of their achievement.
This achievement was due to the initiative taken by the State Government and Hindustan Zinc of the Vedanta Group under the project ‘Maryada’. Maryada was launched with an aim to make 80 villages of Rajasthan ‘open defecation free. However, this was a part of the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan. Now, with the launch of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Hindustan Zinc and the Rajasthan Government will continue to take forward this cleanliness drive by constructing all together 30,000 toilets (10,000 already completed) and make Rajasthan an open defecation free State by 2019. The project also aims at bringing behavioural changes among the people.
Churu district in Rajasthan:
One of the most backward States in India in terms of open defecation, Rajasthan has led the way for others because Churu district is likely to become the first district in the State to get the defecation free status very soon. Most of the blocks in the district has already achieved or near its achievement of the 100% target of providing toilets in each household. Although the pace had slowed down due to the recent State Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the local administration is now ensuring to start it once again in full swing and achieve the defecation free target by the end of this year. A campaign ‘Chokho Churu’ was initiated by the District administration where emphasis was on community mobilization. Public meetings, night village meetings or ratri chaupals and other awareness programmes were carried out. And it was because these programmes, most people’s mindsets changed and they realised the various ill effects related to open defecation. As a result, people became more eager to construct toilets themselves, with the help of the Government. Churu’s performance should be an eye-opener for other villages as well.
CONCLUSION -
This essay on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan throws light on some important aspects given below:
Sanitation needs to be seen as a life cycle issue and hence providing sanitation facilities at work, education and other public spaces are important.
The SBM should not become yet another government scheme that makes the right noises initially only to die a quiet death once the spotlight moves away.
SBM is definitely with great goals and objectives, the issues associated with finance, implementation & awareness needs to be tackled in the right manner, every citizen of India should involve themselves and inculcate the behavioural changes to the literates and illiterates towards cleanliness respectively.
Without the support of each and every individual in society this mission will be nothing more than a scheme.
Therefore this 2nd October let’s come together and give some time to this crucial work and make our mother Earth clean and green.
written by Akshita Chaturvedi
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