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Source-This post on Issues with Swacch Bharat Mission has been created based on the article “The reality of the Swacch Bharat Mission” published in “The Hindu” on 25 April 2024.
UPSC Syllabus–GS Paper-1– Poverty and Developmental issues, Urbanization, their problems and their remedies and GS Paper-2- Government Policies and Interventions for Development in various sectors and Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation.
Context-India was ranked last out of 180 countries in the 2022 Environment Performance Index (EPI). The low ranking in EPI highlights the unsustainability of India’s development processes. However, the government has questioned its methodology and held that it doesn’t accurately assess the situation in India.
What is the relevance of EPI ranking for Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM)?
The aim of EPI ranking is to enable better living standards and various other government intentions are also to uplift the living standards of downtrodden section of the society.Thus,in the backdrop of this, ranking assumes importance.
For ex– Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) aims to address issues of water, sanitation and health (WASH), while others focus on clean energy requirements for cities.
However, despite these efforts, India has experienced a rise in vulnerability to pollution, both in the air and water, among other problems
What are the issues with the implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission?
1) Perpetuating old caste-based practices– In India, sanitation and waste management have strong ties to the caste system. Historically, lower castes have been compelled to do this type of work. While SBM tried promoting that sanitation is everyone’s responsibility, it ended up perpetuating the same old caste-based practices. For ex- manual scavenging is still prevalent.
2) Lack of access to public toilets- Comptroller and Auditor General report in 2020 highlighted the issue of the poor quality of construction of toilets SBM. Still in some metros, communities in slums do not have access to public toilets.
3) Privatization of waste management-One of SBM’s aims was reducing human involvement in waste management by replacing it with capital-intensive technologies. However, this failed as the technologies didn’t deliver on promises.
As a result, governments handed over waste management to private companies who hired the same oppressed groups and perpetuated caste-based discrimination.
4) Issues with solid waste management programs- To handle solid waste, city governments are encouraged to buy expensive equipment like ₹1 crore road sweeping machines and geo-tagged waste transportation vehicles. However, the actual work is handed over to large contractors who invariably hire persons from oppressed communities.
5) Lack of sanitation inspectors-There is a severe shortage of sanitation inspectors/workforce. For ex- the Shimla Municipal Corporation, with 34 wards, has just 5 sanitation inspectors.
Read more- Swachh Bharat 2.0
India needs to change its development plans and ensure that its policies are in alignment with human rights which has been emphasized by a recent Supreme Court ruling on climate change and human rights.
Question for practice
How improved ranking in EPI is linked to better outcome in SBM.Also,highlight the various issues in the implementation of SBM?
