Swachh Bharat on the ground - An insight to the programme

On a hot sunny day in June, Pankaj Jha comes to my shop. Riding on his Hero motorcycle dressed in simple shirt & trousers and carrying a basic cell phone, Mr. Jha starts enquiring about the prices of different building material goods.

I operate a building material store in Raikot, a small town falling under Ludhiana district of Punjab. Jha’s requirements ranged from basic materials like cement & sand to sanitary pipes and seats. After detailed analysis of various quotations that Mr. Jha had from other shopkeepers, he decides to pick up the material from me.

Mr. Jha works as a volunteer with Sulabh International, an organisation promoting sanitisation, waste management and human rights. Sulabh is the one of the largest NGOs in India. Jha along with 46 others have been appointed as supervisors by Sulabh International. But what is Sulabh doing in Punjab? Why is Jha stationed in Ludhiana by Sulabh International?

The story started in August 2014 on the eve of Independence Day. The newly elected Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi urged corporates to take up the social responsibility of building toilets and promoting sanitation and hygiene. The official Swachh Bharat Scheme was launched on October 2nd 2014. The scheme with a vision of Clean India by 2019 aimed to eliminate some curses of our society like open defecation, manual scavenging, bring solid waste management practices into effect and inculcate a habit of sanitation & cleanliness among the people.
Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal came forward to contribute to the Swachh Bharat campaign. Mr. Mittal is the chairman of Bharti Enterprises which owns Airtel, the largest mobile telecommunication company in India. Mr. Mittal adopted Ludhiana district of Punjab. Bharti group committed an investment of Rs. 100 crores in the district. The aim is to build a separate toilet in each household of the district in households where toilets are not present. Apart from this the group will build girls’ toilets in schools where this facility isn’t available. Absence of girls’ toilet is a major cause of girls dropping out of schools once they attain puberty.

A massive 12000 toilets are to be built in rural households in a time span of 36 months. Such a task required expertise to execute the projects in a planned manner within stipulated time. To accomplish this task Bharti roped in Sulabh International owing to its track record and visionary leadership of Shri Bindeshwar Pathak. This sequence of events led to Mr. Jha being sent to Ludhiana district where 46 supervisors will ensure that every household in 915 villages of the district has a toilet in 36 months.

More discussion with Mr. Jha and on ground visit makes one familiar of the modus operandi. A group of villages (three to four) is selected by a supervisor at a time. This is followed by door to door inspection to ascertain the houses which doesn’t have a toilet. The village sarpanch is actively rolled in so that people’s confidence can be gained. A report is prepared for the village and a final figure is determined which is the total number of toilets to be built in the village.

Time is of essence since the target is huge. Targets will be met only when ground officers will be given complete powers to operate and get the quality work done and the biggest hindrance that usually comes in this work is availability of funds. “Money isn’t a problem for us. Our bank accounts are pumped with adequate money so that work isn’t hampered. What matters is speed, quality and continuity” says Mr. Jha.

The construction of one toilet takes an average of eight days. Mr. Jha handles three villages at a time with five masons working in each village. In short he completes an average of 14-15 toilets per week. Average number of toilets being built in every village is in the range of 50-55. This figure can give us a fair idea of the curse of open defecation in a prosperous state like Punjab. The figure would be even worse for the poorest districts of the country.

Centralisation is the theme of speedy work but monitoring of work is also an essential part. The basic scale of judgement would be quality of the material that has been used to build the toilet. Every district has a technical advisor to whom the supervisors like Jha reports. These advisors are veterans in the field of construction. They inspect every material and occasionally rejects batches of bricks and other material not conforming to the desired quality standards.

The job of Sulabh International doesn’t end at just construction of toilets. The real aim is awareness among the people. For this a dedicated awareness team is working which comprises of women volunteers. Once construction of toilets in a village is completed the awareness team visits the village, meets and educates the households regarding cleanliness and use of toilets. “We people are social workers working towards a mission. If the toilets are not put to proper use it will be a useless structure. Thus awareness is the key to success of our efforts. We are grateful to Modi Ji who unveiled such a mission and gave people like us a chance to prove how things can change on the ground level when you have a visionary leadership at the top” adds Mr. Jha.

The toilets are of the best quality and cost effective. The average cost of building one toilet is Rs. 25000. Two months have passed and Mr Jha has moved to 5th village. Bharti group has built more than 3500 toilets till now in the district. People who have got toilets in their houses feel the difference in their lives. “We always knew that toilets are a necessity but we never had the money to build one. We had no other option but to ease ourselves in open” says Paramjit Singh, a daily wage earner who earns Rs. 6000 per month and has two daughters, one son and his wife dependent on him.

The Swachh Bharat mission has changed the lives of thousands of people in the past two years. The mission clean India is on its track and PM Modi seems determined to ensure that the curse of open defecation and girls’ drop out from schools due to lack of toilets is eliminated by 2nd October 2019 which will mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

India definitely needs more visionary corporate like the Bharti Group whose efforts are making a difference in the lives of millions of people.

A fully built and operational toilet in Basraon village

Another toilet in Basraon. Each toilet is marked a number to keep track

Independent pits are dug out for each toilet being built. Here we see the toilet connection being made with the pit. The image is of Bhaini Dareda village

A semi finished structure. An iron door is fitted in every structure. The whole structure is painted and then handed over to the households for use



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