Swachh Bharat Mission has benefited the poor and the women most.
Challenges
Sanitation is the basic need of human beings. Despite the widely accepted fact related to the critical importance of sanitation and personal hygiene, the sanitation coverage in India was low compared to other nations.
This was severely affecting the health and dignity of people in rural areas, especially women and children.
Due to lack of toilets, women and girls felt a sense of helplessness and fear, sometimes even shame, when taking care of their sanitation needs in the open.
They would deliberately limit their intake of water and other liquids to control the urge to urinate. This would result in health-related problems.
Further, open defecation placed women and girls in danger, as they often faced harassment and assault from men, or were attacked by animals.
Government initiatives
Government of India launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) on October 02, 2014 for providing toilets to all households in the country over a time period of five years.
Under SBM-Gramin, about 11.5 crore toilets were constructed in the country. Under SBM Urban, over 70 lakh household, community and public toilets have been built.
Success
As a result of the accessibility of sanitation facilities for every household and their regular usage, almost 100% rural sanitation coverage was achieved.
Women have been the biggest beneficiaries of this programme.
As per the report titled “Access to toilets and the safety, convenience and self-respect of women in rural India”, after the construction of toilets,
93% of women reported that they were no longer afraid of being hurt by someone or harmed by animals while defecating;
93% of women reported they are no longer afraid of contracting health infections;
92% of women said they were no longer afraid of going to the toilet in the dark of night, which is a huge jump from the pre-toilet construction stage (12%); and
93% of the women reported no longer having to stop having food or water to control the urge to defecate or urinate.
