The Technology Of Toilets And The Imagination Of A ‘Clean India’

• Main Author: Sharma, A.
• Other Authors: YSI Asia Convening 2019
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: H. : ĐHKT 2020
• Subjects: Technology; Toilets; Sanitation; The Government of India
• Online Access: http://repository.vnu.edu.vn/handle/VNU_123/71058
• Institution: Vietnam National University, Hanoi

On October 2, 2014, the Government of India launched a mass campaign called the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ (often abbreviated as SBM and loosely translated as Clean India Mission), a major objective of which is to make India ‗open defecation free‘ (hereafter ODF) by 2019. The genealogy of the SBM goes back to the centrally sponsored Rural Sanitation Programme (1986- 1999), followed by the Total Sanitation Campaign (1999-2012), which was replaced by the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (2012-2014). The rationale that has been suggested behind the restructuring and scaling up of the previous mission is to thrust new life into the sanitation programme in order to significantly improve upon the sanitation levels of the country and achieve the goal of ODF India by a certain deadline. This date, the same as the date of launch, is significant. In 2019, it would mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and for the campaigners of the SBM, a ‗Swachh Bharat‘ would be a befitting tribute to the leader.