It’s time to bring in change! A change which Father of our Nation Mahatma Gandhi had envisaged years back. Back then he was on a Cleanliness mission, giving us a statement, “Sanitation is more important than independence”. As a country, we have seen development in many folds. However, there are many areas which requires attention and one such important area pertaining to the health and hygiene of our countrymen is “Sanitation”. Post many years of independence, many rural parts of India were still following the old sanitation system and lacked basic toilet facilities; in turn spreading unwanted diseases. When Shri Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India, he held a strong vision about cleanliness and well being of this country. He revived the dream of Mahatma Gandhi and launched the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ (Clean India Mission) on 2nd October 2014. The mission was launched on the occasion of Mahatama Gandhi’s 145th birth anniversary with the slogan “One step towards cleanliness.”
The main aim of the program is to create sanitation facilities for all and provide every rural family with a toilet by 2019. Along with the cleanliness, this drive has provided a source of employment to many people, contributing to the GDP growth, and reduce health costs to an extent. It has become India’s largest cleanliness drive till date, with three million government employees and students from all parts of India participating from 4,043 cities, towns, and rural areas. The major movement under this mission has helped in cleaning up the streets, roads, and infrastructure in many cities, small towns, and rural areas of India. High-levels of advocacy have helped in reducing open defecation and promote building household-owned and community-owned toilets and construction of 90 million toilets in rural India are planned.
Mosaic as the training partner to the Skill India Mission, has been participating in various activities, cleanliness and awareness drives under the umbrella of Swachhata Pakhwada – a program that fortnightly focuses on the issues and practices of Swachhata by engaging GOI Ministries/Departments in their respective jurisdictions. Our team has been creating a weekly schedule of activities that are conducted in this initiative. These include Nukkad Natak, Prabhat Pheri, in-house and door to door cleanliness drive, promoting green environment while concentrating on the three Rs – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Our efforts have been well appreciated by the government and we have been awarded Swachata Puraskar for Best Community Engagement for July 2018. We as a team are committed to wholeheartedly contributing to this noble cause and in the coming times will continue to do our bit to make this society a better place for all.
The objective of cleaning is not just to clean, but to create happiness and positivity within that environment. Today, when we step out of our house and see clean streets, no overflowing sewage lines and feel the fresh air, we feel happy and that happiness is a gift by nature to us as we have started taking care of it.