BEYOND THE GREAT FLUSH: MORE OF SWACHH BHARAT

SCIENCE journal Nature recently reconfirmed what Swachh Bharat implementers, activists and partners have been saying all this time.

- AKSHAY ROUT

Research led by Suman Chakrabarti of the International Food Policy Research Institute, US and published in the peer-reviewed journal showed that freedom from open defecation has helped avert 60,000-70,000 infant deaths a year in India. The infant mortality rate (deaths per 1,000 live births) in the country fell from 39 in 2014 to 28 in 2020. The authors recommended low- and middle-income countries to follow the example of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM).

The World Health Organization reported a similar finding earlier. Other credible studies suggest families in open defecation free (ODF) villages save 50,000 a year on health costs. ODF areas have distinctly less contamination of groundwater, too.

It started on independence day in 2014, when the prime minister linked the absence of safe sanitation to the predicament of women in the country. The following October 2, the SBM set off in the pursuit of an India free of open defecation within a daunting timeframe of five years.

What followed could be counted among the most magical achievements for a public programme anywhere. Indians across sections came together in an unprecedented manner for the cause of cleanliness. The world's largest sanitation scheme also became the world's largest behaviour-change miracle. The provision of 120 million toilets under the SBM have meaning only because 600 million open defecators confirm usage.