PM Modi will receive an award from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for his Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has defended its decision of conferring the Prime Minister of India – Narendra Modi with an award for his commendable job on his ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ (SBM), after international human rights activists wrote an open letter, objecting the award.
In a media statement, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said, “Before the Swachh Bharat mission, over 500 million people in India did not have access to safe sanitation, and now, the majority do. There is still a long way to go, but the impacts of access to sanitation in India are already being realized.”
It further read, “The Swachh Bharat mission can serve as a model for other countries around the world that urgently need to improve access to sanitation for the world’s poorest.”
For the records, it was earlier announced that Modi will be conferred with the award during his visit to United States (U.S.), later in September 2019.
What is Swachh Bharat Mission?
The Swachh Bharat Mission was launched on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, i.e., October 2 in the year 2014. The SBM is a nation-wide campaign for the period 2014 to 2019 that aims to clean up the streets, roads and infrastructure of India’s cities, towns, and rural areas. The objectives of Swachh Bharat include eliminating open defecation through the construction of household-owned and community-owned toilets and establishing a mechanism of monitoring toilet use. The mission aims to achieve an Open-Defecation Free (ODF) India by October 2, 2019, the 150th birth anniversary Mahatma Gandhi.
Till date, the Government of India has constructed 86 million toilets since 2014, reducing the number of persons who openly defecate from 550 million to fewer than 150 million in 2018.
What did the activists write?
A group of prominent South Asian Americans have asked the Foundation, through a letter, to withdraw the award, citing concerns over Modi’s human rights record. The signatories said that the award would “signal the international community’s willingness to overlook, and remain silent, in the face of the Indian government’s brazen violations of human rights principles.”
The activists believe that the recent abrogation of Articles 370 in Jammu & Kashmir has created unrest in the valley. Besides they also accused the Government of excluding 1.9 million people from Indian citizenship list in Assam.
The letter read, “For over a month now, PM Modi has placed 8 million people in Jammu and Kashmir under house arrest, blocked communications and media coverage to the outside world, detained thousands of people including children, and denied basic benefits.”
It further read, “In addition, the Indian government has begun to disenfranchise millions of residents, mainly Muslims, in the state of Assam. These gross human rights violations must not be diminished, denied, or compartmentalized.”
As a matter of fact, the Central Government of India has clearly said that there has not been a single case of human rights violation in Jammu & Kashmir. As far as Assam is concerned, the Government clarified that it aims to control illegal immigrants from entering India.
Besides, a Delhi-based activist – Kavita Krishnan has also said that the success of SBM is exaggerated.
The facts about Swachh Bharat Mission
The SBM is divided into 2 categories. The first is SBM Rural which operates under the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation and the 2nd is SBM Urban, which operates under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Here’s a sneak peek at the facts and figures:
SBM – Rural (https://swachhbharatmission.gov.in/sbmcms/index.htm)
| Household toilets built since October 2, 2014 | 10,02,18,278 |
| Number of Open Defecation Free Villages | 5,99,963 |
| Number of Open Defecation Free Districts | 699 |
| Number of Open Defecation Free States / UTs | 35 |
SBM – Urban (http://swachhbharaturban.gov.in/)
| Number of Individual Toilets Constructed | 58,46,107 |
| Number of Community and Public Toilets Constructed | 4,99,006 |
| Number of Open Defecation Free Cities | 4,303 |
| Number of Wards offering 100% door-to-door waste collection | 76,459 |
| Conversion of waste to energy (MW) | 88 |
| Waste to Compost (Metric Ton) | 43,87,000 |
