Swachh Bharat Mission –A Roadmap for Basic Rural Sanitation in Karnataka

Sanitation is a top priority of the government. For this, there needs to be a country-wide movement with participation of one and all. And for a social movement of such scale Panchayats, especially Gram Panchayats, will have to play vital role: the role that is envisaged for Panchayats in the Constitution of India. Since for many years village people in our country have been facing acute sanitation problems which are mainly related to Open Defecation, Dumping of Garbage everywhere, Clogged drains and waste water overflowing on the road, Dirt, filth and mud around the hand pumps, bore wells and public taps, non-functioning toilets in Schools and Anganwadis, and Lack of awareness about the need for hand washing and other personal hygiene habits have adversely affects the health of rural communities. In order to overcome all these sanitation challenges among rural community, we need to adopt concerted strategy to implement total sanitation in rural parts of the country. For this purpose the central government has implemented a country-wide sanitation campaign under Swachh Bharat Mission on 2nd, October 2014. In this direction, Karnataka state is making concerted efforts to implement total sanitation in the rural parts of the State. As it result Karnataka’s rural areas sanitation coverage over the years has increased to 87.89 per cent from merely 37 per cent. By 2018-19 26,935 villages and 30 districts have attained the status of complete open defecation free and now Karnataka has reached the maximum level of 99% in making open defecation free environment in the country.