SWACHHA BHARAT ABHIYAAN - FAR BEYOND A MARKETING GIMMICK !

The motive of this article is to give you facts regarding Swachha Bharat Abhiyaan(SBA) and then you can yourself decide whether its just a mere marketing gimmick or far beyond??

SBA aims to make sanitation facilities accessible to every person by 2019 including toilets,solid and liquid waste disposal systems, village cleanliness and safe drinking water supply which would be done through :

• Construction of individual,cluster and community toilets.
• Cleanliness through Solid and Liquid Waste management system.
• Water pipelines in all villages to enable tap connection.

From signing of MoU's with states on water & sanitation to launching of SPV at central level which will act as a route for funds from CSR and also implementing PPP Projects for Community Toilets and Water purification.

The approach is bottom up and targets accordingly :

At individual level : Providing loans from the likes of NABARD,SIDBI for construction of toilets.

At Village level : Assigning Swachhata Doots to every Gram Panchayat for IEC(Information Education and Communication)

At Block level : Sanitation coordinators to support Gram Panchayat in disseminating information and strengthening capacity in sanitation activities.

According to Riggs, the problem with developing countries is that there exists differentiation but lack of integration in the functioning of govt. SBA is a step towards working in an integrated and coordinated manner with different ministries, convergence with CSR fundings, tapping MPLADS/MLALADS for gap funding to construct sanitary facilities.

The purpose is to bring behavioural change among citizens. Communication has been the biggest problem in India, lack of education,infrastructure are the main reasons for the same and to overcome these following have been made an integrated part of SBA :

• Messengers of Change - school children to spread awareness
• National and State level media campaigns
• Involvement of celebrities 

But at last the success of SBA lies in the hands of people of this country, their awareness, their sense of duty towards their nation is going to make a difference else this would also end up as another scheme of GOI which could'nt deliver.

Government policies and women empowerment

India though being one of the countries which gave women an equal right to vote soon after independence has not been able empower them politically.As far as governance is concerned,the political system in a country is the reflection of its society.In a democratic system policies are implemented by a government that is formed by the consent of the governed.Though women have equal right to vote & India has to its credit free,fair and regular elections but the true consent of people is not reflected because a large number of women voters are missing from the electorate because of skewed sex ratio and deprivation of women.This results in selection of those representatives who might not be the choice if the women would have voted and even if this particular individual is not gender biased but he would favour those policies which are favourable to his average electorate.

If we look at the above picture we see the problem of infinite regress,its cyclical in nature i.e. one being the cause of another,so to break this cycle can the Women's Reservation Bill Help...? Well, the plight of women is still the same neither we see pro women policies in panchayats where there is already women reservation.Therefore,we need to study the problem from where it begins i.e. we need to empower women.

Empowerment refers to multi dimensional development and giving an equal status to women in the society for which education is must,not only to the girl child but educating every family member about the importance of the girl child.In India the problem is complex because of wrong interpretation of religion people justify their behaviour in the name of religion which has made the women also accept their fate.

Can the government policies actually empower women..? As far as change is concerned it can only be sustainable if its endogenous,government policies have not been so successful because they are trying to impose change rather understanding the social fabric of the country. The policies do help but firstly we need to change the mindset of people to make these policies work.India has always been community oriented society therefore to bring change at any level firstly we need to bring a change in society.Gupta age was called the Golden Age in the history of India because women had a high stature in society.Whole can develop when every small part of the whole is equally developed therefore in the same way India can develop only when every section of the society is equally developed and empowered.