The Swaach Bharat Abhiyan or Clean India Mission, the ambitious national campaign by the Government of India, covering 4041 statutory towns, to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country has reached Manipur, and reports of various local and state authorities preparing awareness campaigns for the mission appearing in the dailies. The campaign which was officially launched on 2 October 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi, witnessed Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself cleaning the road- a symbolic gesture of remembrance to Mahatma Gandhi’s words. It is India’s biggest ever cleanliness drive and 3 million government employees and school and college students of India participated in this event. The Government of India restructured the Comprehensive Rural Sanitation Programme with effect from 1 April 1999, and launched the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) which was later (on 1 April 2012) renamed to Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA). To give a fillip to the Total Sanitation Campaign, with effect from June 2003 the government launched an incentive scheme in the form of an award for total sanitation coverage, maintenance of a clean environment and open defecation-free panchayat villages, blocks and districts called Nirmal Gram Puraskar, and again on 2nd October 2014 the campaign was relaunched in its latest avatar- Swachh Bharat Abhiyan- With the declared objective to accomplish the vision of a ‘Clean India’ by 2nd October 2019, the 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi and is expected to cost over ¹ 62,000 crore. While the focus on cleaning and maintaining public hygiene is commendable, and about time, considering the rapidly increasing health issues and rising threats of hitherto unknown epidemics, one could not help but wish that such a comprehensive and ambitious campaign be initiated to clean the scourge of corruption, nepotism and favoritism that has become institutionalized in the public offices throughout the country. One could safely surmise that of the massive cost (¹ 62,000 crore) involved in the campaign, a few thousand crores will be siphoned off and misappropriated by various authorities involved. It goes without saying that any project or
campaign, be it for cleanliness, promotion of quality education, infrastructure or connectivity, such initiatives are doomed for failure from the moment of inception until and unless those who are
empowered or authorized to implement it are under the influence of the existing system where the priority is not the attainment of the objective but the undue personal benefits such a campaign presents for
them. If the government is earnest in its intention of making positive and enduring changes, it must start with cleaning up the very system which is bogging down the progress of the country. It should be stoic
enough to award the efficient and punish the defaulters purely on the basis of their given duties and nothing else. The government both at the national and state level also needs to purge itself of the
innumerable tenderpreneurs ( a South African term for a person in government who abuses their political power and influence to secure government tenders and contracts) doting the corridors of the
government. Cleaning the streets need to be augmented with cleansing the system.
