Swachh Bharat Mission

An Indian government campaign launched in 2014 to improve sanitation, eliminate open defecation, and promote cleanliness through public investment and behavior change.

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Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin): The rural component of Swachh Bharat Mission, focused on sanitation and open-defecation-free villages. It directed household toilet construction and sanitation work in rural India.
Sanitation in India: The systems and practices for human waste disposal, hygiene, and sanitation services across India. The mission reshaped national priorities and investment within this broader public-service challenge.
Narendra Modi: An Indian politician who became prime minister in 2014 and launched Swachh Bharat Mission. He made the mission a signature national campaign and publicly championed its cleanliness message.
Sanitation ladder: A framework that classifies sanitation services by containment, treatment, and safe management of human waste. It distinguishes toilet access from the safe disposal outcomes the campaign also needed.
Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban): The urban component of Swachh Bharat Mission, addressing sanitation, waste management, and cleanliness in towns and cities. It adapted the campaign to urban toilets, public spaces, and municipal waste.
India's 2019 open-defecation-free declaration: The Indian government’s 2019 announcement that rural India had achieved open-defecation-free status. The declaration marked the campaign’s headline milestone, while its verification remained debated.
Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation: The former Indian government ministry responsible for rural drinking water and sanitation policy. It oversaw the mission’s rural component before its functions moved to a successor ministry.
Pit latrine: A toilet that deposits excreta into a pit for storage and eventual emptying or decomposition. Many campaign-built toilets used pits, making pit capacity, emptying, and local acceptance consequential.
Total Sanitation Campaign: An Indian rural sanitation program launched in 1999 to promote household toilets and hygiene. It supplied an earlier program model that informed the mission’s rural sanitation approach.
Toilet use in India: The patterns of toilet access, availability, and use among people in India. Toilet construction alone could not establish whether the mission’s intended behavior change lasted.