Clean India, clean

The Swachch Bharat movement is gaining traction and moving on to phase two. The movement’s original agenda comprised three steps: Creating the required infrastructure, changing the public mindset and imposing penalties on law breakers, said Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu. He was speaking on ‘Scaling up Citizens’ participation to a Jan Andolan in SBM (Urban) at a workshop in which representatives of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and several foreign dignitaries participated. It is one of the government’s new ways to reach out to people. The Minister said that people were beginning to respond in a positive way. The Mission is being implemented by the Urban Development and Drinking Water and Sanitation Ministry for urban and rural areas and it will aim at addressing healthy sanitation practices and creating awareness about it by eliminating open defecation, manual scavenging and also urban and rural solid waste management. Local urban bodies will be instrumental in spreading the message and construction of public and household toilets.