About Swachh Bharat Mission

• Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), launched on 2nd October 2014, is a massive mass movement that seeks to create a Clean India by October 2, 2019 (150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi).
• It has 2 components – urban and rural.

1. SBM Urban aims for the elimination of open defecation, conversion of unsanitary toilets to pour flush toilets, eradication of manual scavenging, municipal solid waste management and bringing about a behavioural change in people regarding healthy sanitation practices.
2. SBM Rural (Phase I) aims to make India an open defecation free country. It seeks to improve the levels of cleanliness in rural areas through Solid and Liquid Waste Management activities and making Gram Panchayats Open Defecation Free (ODF), clean and sanitised.

• The Phase I of SBM is claimed to have achieved its goal in 2019.
• The urban component of the mission is implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, and the rural component by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti.

Phase II of SBM Rural

• In 2020, the Union Cabinet approved the Phase II of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) till 2024-25.
• It will focus on Open Defecation Free Plus (ODF Plus), which includes ODF sustainability and Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM). The program will also work towards ensuring that no one is left behind and everyone uses a toilet.

ODF+ and ODF++

• The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched the ODF+ and ODF++ programmes towards sustaining and maintaining the toilets built under SBM Urban. 
• It aims to further scale up and sustain the work undertaken by the cities after achieving the ODF status under Phase I of the SBM-Urban.
• Cities that have been certified ODF at least once, on the basis of the ODF protocols, are eligible to declare themselves as SBM-ODF+ & SBM-ODF++.
  • While ODF+ focuses on toilets with water, maintenance and hygiene, ODF++ focuses on toilets with sludge and septage management.

Swachh Bharat Mission for Urban Areas 2.0

• SBM-U 2.0 envisions to make all cities ‘Garbage Free’ and ensure grey and black water management in all cities other than those covered under AMRUT, make all urban local bodies as ODF+ and those with a population of less than 1 lakh as ODF++, thereby achieving the vision of safe sanitation in urban areas.
• The Mission will focus on source segregation of solid waste, utilizing the principles of 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), scientific processing of all types of municipal solid waste and remediation of legacy dumpsites for effective solid waste management.

Why in news?

• According to the parliamentary standing committee report on water resources, Only 12% of the villages that were supposed to get infrastructure for liquid waste management this year have achieved their goal under the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission citing the pandemic also slowing down progress.

References:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/less-than-a-quarter-of-target-villages-got-solid-liquid-waste-infrastructure-this-year-parliamentary-panel/article65252543.ece
2. https://vikaspedia.in/health/sanitation-and-hygiene/swachh-bharat-mission