On the occasion of 73rd Independence Day, Union Minister for Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Thursday launched India's largest Swachh Survekshan Grameen (Rural Sanitation Survey), 2019 in New Delhi.
To be instituted from August 14 to September 30, 2019, the survey will cover 17,450 villages in 698 districts across India and include 87,250 public places namely schools, Anganwadi centres, public health centres, markets, religious places, making it India's largest rural sanitation survey.
Around 2, 50,000 citizens will be interviewed for their feedback as part of the survey. Citizens will also be mobilised to provide feedback on sanitation relation related issues online using an application developed for the purpose.
An independent survey agency will conduct the review in all districts and the results will be announced based on quantitative and qualitative sanitation parameters. With over 5.8 lakh villages, 639 districts, and 32 states and union territories declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) in rural India, the country is well poised to be completely an open defecation free India by October 2, 2019.
Speaking at the launch, Shekhawat emphasised on the huge success of the Swachh Bharat Mission in becoming the biggest behaviour change programme in the world. He shared that with this survey, the mission is being taken to the next level, by focusing on solid-liquid waste management and plastic waste management.
A detailed protocol has been developed to guide the ranking of districts basis their performance on key quality and quantitative parameters.