State and local governments across the country have been asked to take important measures to strengthen the Swachh Bharat Mission. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has taken one of the very important steps to ensure that the largest cleanliness drive in the country achieves its objective in the city. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has fined Mahesh Kumar, from eastern suburb of Naroda, for spitting pan. He had to pay the municipality an amount of Rs.100.
This has been claimed as a first of its kind case in the country. The disgusting and reckless habit of spitting pan at public places has been a major problem in the almost all the cities of India. Pan spits have ruined the aesthetics of many beautiful monuments, ecological parks, complexes, offices and other places of public importance. This should serve as a message to all the other states that such punitive measures are necessary to be taken, if we want the Swachh Bharat initiative to bear positive results. Swachh Bharat Mission was launched by Prime Minster Narendra Modi in the year 2014 on 2nd October. It is aimed at making India a clean and green country.
Mahesh Kumar was caught spitting on a CCTV camera near the Sardar Patel Statue Road. The civic body (Municipal Corporation of Ahmedabad) has now issued an e-memo for violation of public health laws. According to the corporation, this is the first such case in India where someone has been fined for spitting pan. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation held a press conference where they mentioned about the man being fined for spitting and that this is the first such case in India.
It is a great move in forward direction to make Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) a success. State governments are also taking an initiative to make a cleaner India a reality. It is important for the other state governments to take up such initiative and help the central government in achieving its target under the mission. It is well known that ‘health is wealth’ and cleanliness plays a vital role in achieving the objective.
On 2nd October 2014, when the programme was launched, SBM has equipped 75 million households with toilets. The time when the scheme was in the process of being launched, fewer than 40% of households had toilets. Today that figure has reached over 85%. The number of Open Defecation-Free (ODF) villages has gone up from 47,000 to 384,000 over the same period—about 65% of all villages in the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed to the people many times to help Swachh Bharat Mission achieve greater heights. The benefit of Swachh Bharat Mission is not just restricted to cleanliness and sanitation. India has benefitted in other areas as well.
The Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) has helped the country in reducing the infant mortality rate. According to a report by United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNIGME), about 8,02,000 infant (under 5 years of age) deaths were noted in India in the year of 2017. This is the lowest reported number of infant deaths in the last five years.
In 2016, 8.67 lakh infants died in the country. Diarrheal deaths, which account for more than 8 percent of the total deaths among infants, witnessed a substantial reduction in last few years due to the Modi government’s SBM. Poor sanitation and the unavailability of safe drinking water is the reason behind 88 percent of childhood diarrhoea.
State governments across the country should also adopt the initiatives that have been taken up by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. It is indeed a positive change and should be appreciated. Every state government should work towards achieving a cleaner nation.