Mission accomplished? 80% of adarsh villages selected by 702 MPs 2 yrs ago still practice open defecation

Open defecation in Ahmedabad on October 5

By RK Misra*
Cleanliness germinates in the mind and spreads to the streets.
Last Sunday marked the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi (Oct. 2,1869) and one of his most unassuming disciples, former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri (Oct 2,1904). It also marked the completion of two years of a national cleanliness crusade.
Ironically what the Mahatma enunciated in five simple sentences, a century ago, is today the subject of a high decibel-multi-million rupee national project called ‘Clean India mission’ or ‘Swacch Bharat Abhiyan’. It was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his birthday two years ago.
Coupled with ‘Digital India’ initiative -- both have a completion deadline of 2019 -- the two projects, if successfully completed, possess the capacity to radically change the face of independent India. Almost as much as Rajiv Gandhi’s telecom revolution and village panchayat empowerment or Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ‘Golden Quadrilateral’ road’s initiative.
The Swachh Bharat Mission envisages construction of 1.04 crore individual household toilets in all the 4,041 statutory cities and towns besides 5.08 lakh community and public toilets and 100 per cent door-to-door collection and scientific disposal of solid waste at a cost of Rs 62,009 crore.
The mission has set itself the target to clean up the country by 2019, the year that marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Gandhi, who wanted to make sanitation a priority for India over a hundred years ago. Simply put, Digital India seeks to provide broadband access to all with every manner of accompanying services at the citizens doorstep by 2019. Laudable objectives , path breaking initiatives, something to be both happy and be proud!
Two years down the line, to a project which is slated for completion in 2019,lets take a reality check. I have just built a modest dwelling on the outskirts of Gujarat’s biggest city, Ahmedabad. It is merely ten minutes drive to where the judges of the Gujarat High Court reside. It is located 3kms from ‘Sanskar Dham’, an educational initiative very dear to Modi and undertaken at a time when he was not even the chief minister.
The BSNL says it cannot provide me a landline for lack of feasibility and my BSNL mobile goes non-functional the moment I reach the place. No signal. So much for implementation of Digital India in the PMs home state, alongside its biggest city and closest to an institution which is a pure labour of love for him personally.
Aware of this state of affairs in a state helmed by Modi for a decade and a quarter, what should one make of the announcement that the Centre has this week completed the rollout of telecom networks in areas worst affected by left-wing extremism across ten states in record time?
It is not uncommon to check out the surroundings for basic services in a place where one plans to move in.
The nearest village is Manipur. It is a mere 500 yards from Sanskar-Dham. Heaps of garbage litter the road and people heading for the fields, plastic bottle in hand, is a common morning sight here. Ahmedabad itself is a case in point. The city itself generates 1.14 lakh metric tonnes of waste every month and does not possess the capacity to dispose of more than a fraction of it though it is a strong contender for global heritage status.
Change scene to state capital, Gandhinagar where I presently reside. My morning walk takes me past sector eight. This is where the bulk of the state’s ruling elite-IAS, IPS and IFS officers –reside. Every morning I am greeted by a string of men and women-the people who serve and service the elite- similarly heading for the nearest thicket to answer the call of nature.

If this is the state of affairs in the area of the elite in the model state of Gujarat what hope for the rest? And imagine Gandhiji, delivering a speech in 1936 on the sanitation standards of the menials matching those that the ministers they would be serving!
This forcefully rubs home the point that while the objectives of both Clean India Mission and Digital India are laudable, they suffer from basic infirmities. Modi has a weakness for the ‘gargantuan’ rather than the achievable and the ‘political’ timeline attached to them, not only puts the implementing ,machinery under intense pressure but also leads to all sorts of unethical practices and unsavoury number fudging that negates the good.
The much touted Gujarat model also has a overflowing scrap yard of ambitious discards that were binned after they had served their poll purpose. Fifty lakh houses for the poor and the lower middle class in five years was Modi’s fancy announcement before the 2012 polls complete with colourful brochure and a five star lunch. Gone with the wind.
On June 26,2005, the then chief minister Modi announced that state PSU, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) the discovery of an estimated 20 trillion cubic feet (TCF) in the Kakinada block of the Krishna Godavari basin. At then rates, it was valued at $50 billion (Rs2,20,000 crore).
By 2009, GSPC had cut it’s gas reserve estimates by 90 per cent and last heard had borrowed over Rs 19,000 crores without starting commercial production from the block. You will soon see this sick relic of Modi’s Gujarat model being made to ride piggy back on the Ovaltine-fed ONGC. These are just two of a cupboardful of skeletons.
According to the latest study by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) 1.09 crore toilets were built across the country in the first 11 months of 2015-16 but a majority of the people in the rural areas-52.1 per cent – do not use them. The data also indicates that despite the mission targeting students by providing toilets in schools,56.6 percent in rural areas chose open defecation.
The survey also revealed a lack of infrastructure for drainage and disposal of waste. Forty four per cent of the villages surveyed did not have any drainage while 63 per cent of wards did not have a liquid waste disposal system. Chronic water shortage to service these toilets made matters worse.

Digital India is increasingly acquiring the hues of a pipedream. In fact, it is not new but is the incorporation of three ongoing programmes -- the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN), the National Knowledge network and the e-governance initiative.
India ranks 125th in the world for wired broadband penetration says Rahul Khullar, a former chairman of Trai with 1.2 per 100 having access as against a global average of 9.4. In wireless broadband ,India is 113th with a penetration of 3.2 per hundred. In NOFN less than 3 per cent of the target has been achieved so far. The target of linking gram panchayats, despite being scaled down, is far behind schedule. No broadband for me on the outskirts of Ahmedabad either.
The fact is that the marketing genius just packed the three oldtime, ongoing initiatives into a glittering package called Digital India and sold it with a 2019 deadline. Both the ambitious projects will be deemed to be completed in time for the next general elections,2019. Mission accomplished. Chest thumping time!
It hardly matters that as of this day 80 per cent of the “Adarsh” (ideal) villages selected by 702 Members of Parliament two years ago as part of the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna (Parliament Ideal Village Scheme), still practice ‘open defecation.’
And this is as per official government statistics! And, last but not the least, if the common man does not stop spitting on the road and littering the lanes there is little hope that any cleanliness crusade will ever work.
As I said at the outset, cleanliness begins in the mind and spreads to the streets!
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*Senior Gandhinagar-based journalist. Blog: http://wordsmithsandnewsplumbers.blogspot.in/