OSD, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India
‘Friends, the way the Swachh Bharat Mission reached every nook and corner of the country in the form of a jan andolan is a case study for many prestigious universities across the world. I think that in the 21st century, this kind of movement for behavioural change has not happened in any other country until now. India is certainly changing. Behaviours and habits are changing.’
—Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Motihari, 10 April 2018
INHERENT IN THE Prime Minister’s words above is the underlying philosophy of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM): the bold but sincere effort to change sanitation behaviours across the country within just 5 years. These deep-seated and socially accepted but unhealthy behaviours – especially open defecation (OD) – have been prevalent among many parts of the population over generations. This was, therefore, a significant challenge for sanitation practitioners in 2014. Neuroscientists agree that it is much easier to adopt ‘new’ habits than replace old ones that refuse to die.
In the heterogenous context of India, mindsets vary across communities. To some, it was impure to have a toilet in the premises of their homes, to others going out for open defecation was a social outing. For some, toilets were for occasional use when it was raining outside, and for others, toilets were only for women or old people – it was macho to go out. There were also certain areas where topographical challenges made the construction of toilets difficult, and made the task of behaviour change even more arduous. But one thing was clear: the brick and sand and the pan were nominal factors; one had to work primarily on the mind. The key challenge before the Swachh Bharat Mission was to construct a toilet in people’s minds, that would then automatically manifest itself on the ground.
The 4 Challenges
The 4Ss – Speed, Scale, Stigma and Sustainability – were major tasks to deal with. In 2014, the harsh reality that awaited the Mission was that there were no enthusiastic takers for the financial incentive and technology support that they brought as supply – unlike the attraction of a house, a gas cylinder, an electric connection, drinking water or even a village road. The foremost task for Information, Education and Communication (IEC) managers then was to create a wave of demand in quick time so that sanitation coverage could jumpstart from the meagre base of 39 per cent. To debunk the various myths and stigmas associated with using toilets, the Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen (SBM-G) undertook a set of interventions, where the message was the real hero.
Unparalleled Leadership: The Communicator-in-Chief
Leading the IEC campaign from the front has been the Prime Minister of India himself. When he spoke from the ramparts of the Red Fort about the urgent need for a Clean India, he brought the taboo topic of ‘toilets’ and ‘open defecation’ out of the closet and triggered a thought in the collective consciousness of the nation. Over the last five years, he has proactively taken up every opportunity to send across the message of safe sanitation and achieving an Open Defecation Free (ODF) India by October 2019. From laying the brick for toilet construction, talking about ‘swachhata’ in three-fourths of all his ‘Mann ki Baat’ addresses to the nation, personally presiding over large mass mobilization campaigns, exhorting every organization and every group to take up sanitation activity, felicitating little-known swachhata champions from remote parts, washing the feet of sanitation workers at the Kumbh Mela to taking the agenda to international dialogues, and even highlighting it extensively during his election campaign, the Prime Minister has not lifted his foot off the sanitation pedal even once. He has, in fact, been the Communicator-in-Chief of the Mission, inspiring the country to make the shift from OD to ODF. The Prime Minister’s communications have been the most strategic asset of the Mission.
Torchbearers of the Swachh Bharat Mission
At the other end of the spectrum have been the swachhagrahis – 6,25,000 (an average of one in every village of India) foot soldiers of SBM. Swachhagrahis are local volunteers who are trained in raising awareness, triggering and motivation techniques, and are key to changing the mindset around sanitation in their villages. Since they belong to the local community and are aided by local knowledge, language, art and culture, swachhagrahis tailor their interventions to the local context, thereby maximizing their effectiveness. These interventions, based on inter-personal communication (IPC), promote an intense face-to-face dialogue with the community and form the bedrock of all IEC under SBM-G. In the context of a segmented and diverse population, the SBM-G guidelines recognize this and suggest spending 60 per cent of IEC budgets on IPC. While the guidelines provide an indicative list of IPC interventions, the swachhata champions across the country have used their creativity to bring in clutter-breaking, innovative ways of spreading their messages of swachhata, often calling out the pride and honour of the community.
Changing the Sanitation Discourse
SBM-G has undertaken some of the most iconic social mobilization campaigns India has ever seen: Swachhata Hi Seva, Satyagraha Se Swachhagraha, Swachh Sundar Shauchalaya, Swachh Sankalp Se Swachh Siddhi being some of them. The focus has been on promoting safe toilet technologies and inspiring pride in construction and use of toilets for the health and dignity of families. Raising awareness and promoting ‘shramdaan’ have been the key tenets of these campaigns, along with the push towards achieving SBM-G performance indicators. Taking this opportunity, the top leadership of the country has led from the front, setting an example by offering shramdaan.
Celebrities, faith leaders, social groups, women and children have all come together to turn these campaigns into mass movements. Millions of people (1.34 crore toilets painted during Swachh Sundar Shauchalaya, 2.4 crore essays written during Swachh Sankalp Se Swachh Siddhi, among others) joined these campaigns to make Swachh Bharat a true jan andolan. The Satyagraha Se Swachhagraha Campaign with the rallying cry of ‘Chalo Champaran’ saw 10,000 swachhagrahis from Bihar and 10,000 swachhagrahis from other states across India uniquely paired together to trigger behaviour change in villages across Bihar. People’s participation has, thus, emerged as the top answer to the decades of sanitation backlog. A billion-plus people have wielded the baton and are running tirelessly as one nation to usher in a Swachh India.
Becoming the Voice of a Jan Andolan
Mass media approaches through print and electronic media have left a lasting impression on citizen consciousness. On one hand, there were audio visual campaigns like Darwaza Band featuring Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan and the twin-pit toilet campaign featuring superstar Akshay Kumar; on the other, dozens of opinion articles published in prominent newspapers by the who’s who of India have served as significant advocacy. As a part of its mass media outreach, the Mission’s central social media handles have provided real-time updates about its priorities and the activities taking place on the ground, as well as its impact.
SBM brand ambassadors like Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar or Sachin Tendulkar have not been the typical ambassadors hired for an ad campaign, but more of partners at work for the Mission. They joined events and consultations, interacted with the public through discussions on swachhata over social media, honoured champions and engaged in shramdaan. They immersed themselves in the Mission and became stakeholders in its outcome. Swachh Bharat diehard Akshay Kumar even created the Bollywood blockbuster Toilet: Ek Prem Katha that certainly is a milestone in sanitation messaging or any civic messaging for that matter. Many such creative pursuits on the once unmentionable subject of sanitation have been taken up on both celluloid and the small screen, including shows like Chalo Saaf Karein, Hum Saaf Saaf Hain, Safar Manzilon Ka and Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon . Besides celebrities, politicians and senior administrators too regularly undertake myth-defying demonstrations involving emptying pits, cleaning toilets, digging pits – essentially getting their hands ‘dirty’ to spread the message of swachhata. Such ‘ leading by example’ IEC interventions were organized to reassure the community and address any dissonance through high-pitched positive noises. The net result is that the chatter is on – in the drawing room, during morning walks, at the village chaupal, in class rooms, at conferences, at tea stalls – about Swachh Bharat, the toilet revolution, overall cleanliness – and it is chatter that is not likely to stop. Everyone has a suggestion, everyone has a complaint, but the talk starts and ends with a note of appreciation about a job well begun and largely well done.
Numbers Don’t Lie
Outreach at scale in a country of India’s size requires significant finances besides other support systems. Putting the money where the mouth is, the SBM-G guidelines provided up to 8 per cent of the programme expenditure for IEC activities, which meant a kitty of close to Rs 6,500 crore over the last four-plus years. A recent study by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) further estimates that SBM was able to mobilize an equivalent of Rs 22,000 crore to Rs 28,000 crore from non-SBM stakeholders, in spending for sanitation awareness and behaviour change activities across rural India. The study also estimates that every rural Indian was exposed to SBM-G related IEC messaging about 2,500-3,300 times in the last four years! A case in point is how the Swachh Bharat Mission logo today features on Indian currency notes, the Indian Railways’ network and has come to be seen as a ubiquitous and enduring symbol of this country’s collective commitment to a Clean India.
Sustaining the Global Dream, Now India’s Reality
The Swachh Bharat IEC journey is a national heritage, and indeed a global asset. This is a model that can be adopted by organizations and countries, which need to create mass involvement to realize civic goals with speed and effect. Seventy countries listened to India’s sanitation journey with rapt attention at the Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention (MGISC) in New Delhi in October 2018, a journey that is perhaps the world’s greatest story of behaviour change. This unparalleled IEC tale is set to ignite the global community that is tasked with the time-bound Sustainable Development Goal 6.2: ensuring sanitation for all by 2030 – a goal that India is poised to achieve 11 years ahead of schedule.