A laudable achievement

But Swachh Bharat could have been more than building toilets

One of the signature programmes of the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), which was launched five years ago on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, October 2. It followed up on Mr Modi’s laudable decision to highlight the problem of sanitation and cleanliness in his first speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort, on Independence Day 2014. In many ways, the SBM is representative of many of the missions of the NDA government; it takes an existing scheme under a Central line ministry and adds enthusiasm, public engagement and implementation energy to the mix.