Whether the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan has been able to bring a cleaner nation has been the topic of heated debate. However, as this ambitious initiative is approaching its third year—it is but clear that the SBA has generated awareness and brought in attitudinal change among people to live in a clean and hygienic surrounding.

In 2014, on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday on October 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to make India a cleaner nation. He inaugurated the “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”, also known as the “Clean India Movement”. The aim of the movement is to make India filth free in next 5 years by 2019 also marking the 150^th birth anniversary year of Mahatma Gandhi.

In the movement, the Prime Minister himself led from the front and was seen cleaning the roads with broom, joined by his ministers and nearly 3 million government employees. He urged the Indian nationals to come and participate in the movement. In response, we all witnessed how the local residents, RWAs, school and college students were found cleaning the roads & public places and pledged to make India filth free. In the past, we have seen many such initiatives by various governments for instance under Rajiv Gandhi was launched the Central Rural Sanitation Program in 1986 and under Atal Bihari Vajpayee was launched the Complete Sanitation Campaign in 1999 but, the lack of awareness and commitment shown by the governments and people led to failure of the initiatives.

But unlike the previous campaigns, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is far more advertised  via means of social media and celebrity participation and the constant visual bombardment has definitely managed to evoke response.

That said, asking citizens to be responsible for general cleanliness is impractical. The larger responsibility lies on the authorities to provide facilities. Even in the twin capital of Naharlagun-Itanagar, there is a huge shortage of things as basic as dustbins. The functioning of the nascent Itanagar Municipal Council is precarious at best. Though attempts have been made to address garbage management, it is falling short. Shifting and dumping wastes from one place to another cannot be called Waste Management. Focus on the three Rs—Reuse, Reduce, Recycle must be of prime focus and this should be part of the IMC’s awareness generation.

Where one part of the population is aware about the serious health and hazards of filth and dirt, the other part are still unaware and neglect cleanliness. Though SBA cannot be labelled a success in the technical term at present, but the wheels have started turning.