Assam on swachh mission
Inclusive Development through Swachh Bharat Mission : The ASSAM experIence
Nestled in the northeastern part of the country , Assam is the most populous state in the region . Despite the rich cultural heritage , it faced a mammoth challenge in form of access to sanitation facility , with 33.63 lakh families either defecating in the open or using insanitary ( unhygienic ) household toilets , in 2014 . However , with committed leadership , foresight , and dedication , the state is just a few months away from becoming Open Defecation Free ( ODF ).
by : Tandra Dey Sarkar
Background Like the rest of the country , Swachh Bharat Mission was launched on 2nd October , 2014 in Assam . However , the implementation was tardy with only 172 villages out of the total 26,395 villages in Assam becoming Open Defecation Free till Mid 2016 .
The Turnaround As soon as the new government took over , sanitation became one of the top priorities . An ad-hoc implementation structure gave way to a forward looking Mission Directorate . The leadership provided by the Chief Minister , Sri . Sarbananda Sonowal , the Public Health Engineering Minister , Sri Rihon Daimari and the Mission Director of the Swachh Bharat Mission ( Gramin ) Assam , Dr . Siddharth Singh ensured that the Programme became what it was always meant to be , a people ’ s movement . Inclusive , innovative approach , reliance on social behavior change communication became the cornerstone of the mission , rather than the construction driven number crunching race .
Approach The approach adopted was of inclusion of all sections of the society through mass awareness generation . Interpersonal communication through an army of ground level volunteers called Swacchagrahis was extensively employed to reach out to everyone . Mass media , rallies , banners , posters , street plays special events were also used as part of IEC campaign . This was supplemented with provisioning of sufficient funds for hardware activities viz . individual household sanitary toilets and community sanitary complexes . Associated activities like mason training , supply change management for sanitary material were simultaneously planned too .
Innovations While the normal means were being utilized , a lot of innovative ideas were also put to test , viz :
Cleanest Village Award With a view to foster healthy competition , and to create worthy role models , Swachh Bharat Mission Assam team initiated the concept of cleanest village award . Approximately 26000 villages across 33 districts of Assam were scanned and ranked in terms of cleanliness and hygiene . The cleanest village in every district was awarded and the cleanest village in the entire state was indentified . Rangsapara , a small village in Goalpara district , was found to be the cleanest village in Assam . Interestingly , the entire population of the village is Below Poverty Line . The message is loud and clear , that economic condition and financial resources are not the only determinants of cleanliness ( or the lack of it !)
Harnessing Youth Power Realizing that students can be the best change agents , and that every student from ‘ KG to PG ’ is involved , the SBM team entered