Attitude Towards Cleanliness In India
India was the site of a long-ago civilization. The state has been proclaimed to be secular. Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains, and others exist in India, and they all fervently practise their respective beliefs. It’s necessary to raise awareness among people, but even more crucial is that this awareness leads to action. Because the government is taking the lead, it will definitely inspire people and make them understand that cleanliness is not just the government’s job.
The Swachh Bharat Mission, which aims to transform how a nation views sanitation on both a quantitative and qualitative level, is the greatest “behavioural change” programme ever to be introduced. While India’s overall sanitation coverage has reached 92%, there is positive news in that qualitative advancements are only now starting to become apparent.
Let’s start the blog by having an overview of India’s History of Sanitation in connection with the Attitude Towards Cleanliness In India.
India’s Sanitation History
Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP)
Rajiv Gandhi, prime minister at the time, launched the first comprehensive national cleanliness programme in 1986. The Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) and the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan share many of the same basic elements. The initiative was the first of its kind to give low-income households financial aid for installing individual toilets in their homes (IHHLs). The CRSP classified the price of installing a toilet into three ranges: up to Rs. 1500, between Rs. 1,500 and Rs. 2,000, and over Rs. 2000.
The below Rs. 1,500 model, for which the Union government contributed 60% of the cost, the state government 20%, and the remaining 40% was to be borne by the household, was the one that BPL families were most likely to accept. Families with incomes over the poverty line did not receive any financial assistance.
The programme also underlined the need for sanitary facilities in public locations and announced that up to Rs 2 lakhs will be made available for their construction. The programme guidelines also addressed the lack of restrooms in schools and Anganwadis, with schools receiving financial support of up to Rs 14,000 and Anganwadis receiving up to Rs 3,000.
The first programme to tackle the problem of managing rural solid waste was the CRSP.
Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)
The Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), launched by the Indian government in 1999, aims to expand access to sanitation across the nation, with a focus on rural areas. In order to enhance public demand for sanitation facilities, particularly in schools, it placed a focus on communication and education.
The TSC programme put a heavy emphasis on information, education, and communication (IEC) as a way to promote sanitary facilities and establish a stronger support network that included skilled labour, building materials, and manufacturing facilities. The necessity of school sanitation and hygiene education (SSHE) was also emphasised as a starting point for creating a wider adoption of these practices.
The project acknowledged the requirement for local leadership and provided incentives to promote participation. “ The GoI established the Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) award in October 2003 in recognition of the significance of elected local representatives (Gram Panchayats [GPs]) in advancing sanitation through collective community action.
The TSC made some progress, but it was constrained by its inadequate resource allocation and low priority. It was rebranded as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan in 2012, and then as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014.
Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA)
The centre started the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) programme in 2012 with the intention of giving every rural home access to a toilet by the year 2022. In conjunction with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan was introduced (MGNREGA). NBA was an improvement over TSC that increased sanitation coverage in rural regions through new tactics, adjusted criteria, and altered targets.
Through its community-led comprehensive sanitation approach, it mandated that government entities respond to citizens’ sanitary requirements. States and communities launched sanitation programmes and built public restrooms; several states even created assistance programmes for people who wished to instal private toilets in their homes.
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