What would be the best way to mark the birth anniversary of the Father of our Nation, Mahatma Gandhi? On October 2, 2014, it was decided that to honour the memory of the man who shaped our nation, Swachh Bharat Mission would be launched. Has your brain started pulling up images of our Prime Minister Modi and various ministers, students, celebrities and others sweeping the streets with a broom yet? Plus, in the PM's Mann ki Baat last month, he gently nudged the citizens of the country to maintain the momentum of the mission, especially in the light of the ongoing pandemic.

Touted as the world’s largest sanitation drive and termed as Jan Andolan, one of the main tenets of the Swachh Bharat Mission was becoming an Open Defecation Free (ODF) country by the year 2019. Eradication of manual scavenging, change in the mindset with regards to sanitation and improving the process of solid and liquid waste management were also on the agenda.  

In June this year, the Government of India released Rs 40,700 crore for waste management in two lakh villages under this very mission plus previously, it had offered subsidies for the construction of 110 million toilets. By 2019, UNICEF declared that the number of people who still did not have access to toilets had reduced significantly.