Economy

Swachh Bharat Mission

Also: SBM, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Clean India Mission

Definition

A national sanitation campaign launched on 2 October 2014 to end open defecation and improve solid waste management, run in two parts: SBM-Gramin for villages under the Jal Shakti ministry and SBM-Urban for towns under the Housing and Urban Affairs ministry.

Summary card: Swachh Bharat Mission. Launched 2 October 2014, Gandhi Jayanti. Rural India declared ODF on 2 October 2019. Phase II focuses on ODF Plus and waste management. Swachh Survekshan ranks cities on cleanliness — Summary card © UPSCPrep.in

Background and evolution

Poor sanitation has long been one of India's biggest public health problems. Census 2011 found that a majority of rural households had no toilet, and open defecation spread diarrhoea, worms and stunting among children, while forcing women to wait for darkness and exposing them to harassment. Earlier programmes, the Central Rural Sanitation Programme (1986), the Total Sanitation Campaign (1999) and the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (2012), built toilets but were weak on use and on changing habits.

Swachh Bharat was launched on Gandhi's birth anniversary in 2014 with a five-year deadline. The emphasis moved from counting toilets to declaring villages open defecation free (ODF), with verification, community mobilisation and incentive payments to households. Celebrities, schools and local officials were drawn into a mass campaign, and toilets were renamed "izzat ghar" (house of dignity) in many places. On 2 October 2019 all rural districts were declared ODF. The second phase, from 2020–21 for villages and from 2021 for cities (SBM-Urban 2.0), shifted attention to sustaining ODF status and managing solid and liquid waste.

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Last reviewed: 23 October 2026 · Original UPSCPrep.in content.