The Swachh Bharat Mission-SBM also known as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan-SBA is the most remarkable sanitation campaign initiated by the Government of India under leadership of PM Narendra Modi. In fact sanitation campaign like Total Sanitation Campaign -TSP was taken up in the past also during Congress lead UPA Govt, but this scheme had low budget and didn’t address open defecation in India, but SBM addressed this issue to a great extent and we see public washrooms having been constructed in nook and corner of the country. A great focus has also been given on construction of Individual Household Lavatories (IHHL) as well and almost every rural or urban household living under poverty line have been provided financial assistance to make a hygienic washroom. First 5 years of SBM (2014-2019) was focussed on the same thing and there has been a remarkable achievement indeed and open defecation or use of dry lavatories is very minimal now. In J&K open defecation was not a great challenge but there were dry lavatories in our rural areas which posed some threat especially those constructed near water bodies. Almost 80 % of these lavatories don’t exist now on the ground. Phase 2 of SBM which began from 2019 onwards focusses on waste management and this is still a challenging task. Neither solid nor liquid waste is being treated properly and the rural waste management programme is completely in a state of suspended animation. The waste management programme still remains a challenging task for all the urban local bodies and panchayati raj institutions.
40 million toilets constructed
In 2019-2020, the Govt of India announced that all the SBM targets had been met. The figures were impressive as than 40 million toilets were built in four years, meaning access to sanitation rose from under 40% in 2014 to nearly 100% in 2020. This success was “formalised” the following year when the annual report from the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) run by the United Nations (UN) noted a reduction of nearly 50% in the number of people in the world practising open defecation. The better sanitation services in India has brought a great revolution and previously struggling indicators has considerably improved at global level because India being a huge country had a large population that was defecating in the open and that has come down dramatically in the last 7 to 8 years.
Defunct toilets
The UN’s Joint Monitoring Programme -JMP had noted that the figures provided by the Govt were a bit less optimistic as Government agencies only measure the presence or absence of toilets while the UN establishes a “ladder of services’ ‘. Thus a poorly contained or shared latrine or one with an outlet into a waterbody like stream , irrigation canal or a wetland will be categorised as “unimproved” or “limited” sanitation by the JMP. The Governments in states and UTs on the other hand counts it as a toilet even if it is not properly functioning like having being blocked or not having water connectivity or having an outlet in a waterbody. In a Govt High School at village Sani Darwan – Charar e Sharief in district Budgam this summer I noticed that 4 to 5 washrooms had been constructed more than 3 years back but they were non operational due to not being connected to a water pipeline. During the visit of Chairman District Development Council Budgam Nazir Ahmad Khan in June this year, the female students of this school raised this issue. I was also present on the occasion and seeing this pathetic condition I quickly made a video on it. I uploaded it on social media. The Mission Director Jal Jeevan Mission J&K Dr G N Itoo was kind enough to take cognizance of the matter and within 24 hours the washrooms were functional. On papers these washrooms were shown to be operational and functional for 3 years but the situation on ground was quite different. We have many such cases wherein community toilets are non operational but they are shown to be functional . In addition to it many lavatories that were constructed under SBM have their outlets inside the water bodies , canals or streams which is contaminating our drinking water sources. The officials of the rural development department who allowed these illegal constructions should be identified and taken to task.
Conclusion
The open defecation has been countered across the country but managing solid and liquid waste is a herculean task. In Jammu & Kashmir this is further challenging especially in the Kashmir valley where we have very small landholdings. In fact huge funds have been pumped to J&K by Govt of India under SBM Gramin & Urban phase 2. At an average Rs 4.50 lakhs are provided to each Gram Panchayat for constructing segregation sheds , compost pits and soakage pits. For 5000 village panchayats across J&K hundreds of crores have been allocated. In addition, crores of rupees have been spent on purchase of steel trash bins as well, but there is nobody to clear these choked bins ? We don’t have a deficiency of funds but there is a lack of coordination, capacity and work culture in the Rural Development Department. The guidelines of waste management rules (MSW Rules 2016) and Water Pollution Act 1974 are not followed at all. Many lavatories have been constructed on the banks of streams and waterbodies and local BDO offices have provided the funds for these illegal constructions ? Similarly waste segregation sheds have been made near public places and water bodies which again violates MSW Rules 2016 and Water Pollution Act 1974. We might have countered open defecation by constructing thousands of lavatories in J&K especially but by allowing the setting up of these lavatories near water bodies (streams, rivers, irrigation canals) we are increasing instances of water pollution which is more dangerous than Open Defecation? Let authorities close down these illegal constructions soon.
Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat is an Acumen Fellow.
He is also Climate Action Fellow at Anant National University Ahmedabad