Advocacy Campaign - Swatch Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission)

ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN – SWATCH BHARAT ABHIYAN (CLEAN INDIA MISSION)
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Introduction
Swatch Bharat Mission (SBM) is a nation-wide campaign launched by PM Narendra
Modi of India (Kaushal and Sikroria, 2017, p 10). The campaign period is from 2014 till
2019 and its aims are to clean streets, roads and other infrastructure present in India.
The current scope of analysis deals with the advocacy campaign.
1. The Problem
The Issue to be tackled - India’s lack of hygiene and toilets affects millions of people.
The issue to be tackled is preventing open defecation and sewage contamination in
bathing and drinking water.
Affected Parties - It was estimated that approximately 530 million people in India
practices defecation in the open (Bhanu Paramjyothi, Pavani, Subhashini and Indira,
2017, p 204). The issue affects the entire population of the country, especially those
living in villages.
Motivation to Act - The campaign has a noble cause and could impact livelihood of
millions of people in the country.
Others care about this issue - The issue of open defecation directly contaminates the
water stream and comes in contact with food source such as fishes. Cleaning the
streets and other infrastructure would promote healthy environment. This might reduce
incidence of certain diseases and allergies, hence others will care about this campaign.
The effects, symptoms etc of this issue - The issues effect has large bearing on the
burden of various diseases in the country.
2. The Context
The issue received considerable amount of focus from the current political party in India.
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The NDA Government set up this mission and PM Narendra Modi aimed at making
India clean through this campaign. India’s varied and complex social and cultural
structure imposed varied difficulties for this campaign. While most states imposed the
campaign, some states were not successful in carrying out this campaign. There were
insignificant economic costs involved in the campaign. Most costs were oriented at
promotion of the campaign, while others were directed at making individuals at their
position to implement the campaign. As for example, cleaners at train stations were
asked to maintain log books for cleaning records, they were asked to frequently clean
station and prevent anyone, who was deterring the mission. Majority of the cost was
directed at building toilets at several villages across India. The environmental context
was tremendous as the campaign had capability to improvise the environment. Legal
consideration involved in the campaign was worker’s pay and health related acts and
labor laws and so on.
3. Applicable law, policy, conventions and development frameworks
Mechanisms used – Toilets were built during the campaign and workers as well as
laborers in cleaning roles were assigned responsibilities to take their duties in a diligent
manner (Sarmah and Maharishi, 2016, p 440). Employees in all government offices
were asked to maintain clean and neat workspace.
The legal, human rights and, or sustainable development normative frameworks
applicable to the campaign, project – The campaign focuses upon sustainable
development normative frameworks so as to provide clean and safe drinking and
bathing water for future generations.
Identified frameworks to intervene in the campaign, project – The sustainable
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