Cleanliness is an ongoing process, irrespective of the seasons. Under the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission unveiled in the Union Budget 2021, the government has once again emphasized the need to focus on complete fecal sludge management and waste-water treatment, among others. As a result, we are seeing a gradual shift in the mindset of citizens who are more aware and have a sense of responsibility towards this cause.
Covid crisis has brought about the importance of sanitation and effective solid waste management. But it won’t be false to say that the present situation could have been much worse had it not been for the critical part that Swachh Bharat Urban has played in the last six and a half years to ensure a high degree of cleanliness and sanitation in urban areas. Efficient measures in the field of sanitation and solid waste management have the key. For example, the robust and uninterrupted system of door-to-door collection of waste even during the lockdown not only ensured that segregated waste (including bio-medical waste from households) was being collected but eased life especially for the elderly and vulnerable who were stuck at home. Our city authorities were on the job 24X7 sanitizing all corners of the city, arranging for hand-washing facilities especially in low-income settlements, and ensuring proper treatment and disposal of waste collected from households.
On the digital front, we repurposed our hugely popular grievance redressal platform, Swachhata App (with over 1.7 crore users) in order to enable citizens to get their COVID-related complaints also redressed by their respective ULBs. Alongside, our communications team undertook several campaigns to promote COVID-appropriate behavior.
The most important concern for us has been the safety and well-being of our sanitation workers – the frontline soldiers in our fight against the deadly virus. We issued an advisory in this regard around the provision of personal protective equipment (PPEs), health check-ups, and payment of regular wages for sanitation workers, even if they were unable to report for work due to the lockdown. It was heartening to see the services of sanitation workers being duly recognized by both authorities and citizens, something which was long overdue for them. There were stories from several parts of India such as Nabha in Punjab, Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh), Chennai and Madurai, and many more where sanitation workers were been showered with flowers and provided with food and ration.
In the last 6 years or so, the concept of ‘Swachhata’ has now occupied a strong mind-space among citizens. A sense of pride around keeping their cities clean is becoming common in them. Concepts such as source segregation, home composting, etc., which were barely present earlier, have now started becoming the norm. People are starting to realize that they need to take equal responsibility, along with the government, to keep their neighborhoods and cities clean.
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Urban Sanitation Programme in India 