Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan: A tale of dignity for millions of rural women

DailyInsight

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posted on 1 year ago — updated on 1 second ago

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India’s sanitation conditions were in quite a bad position before the ambitious Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G) was launched in 2014. Only about 40% of households had access to toilets. The mission's emphasis on social inclusion, participation of women, and behavior change communication (BCC) has proven to be an outstanding success. More than any other group, the lives of rural women have been profoundly impacted by this programme.

The Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi nine years ago, and around five years back India realized its objective of making India completely open defecation-free (ODF). This enabled people to embrace a life of dignity and change. The programme has supervised the installation of more than 100 million toilets nationwide since its launch on October 2, 2014.

The option to relieve oneself whenever convenient is now available to a sizable percentage of the population, who formerly had to adhere to set times of the day for their sanitary needs. More than anyone else this scheme has incredibly impacted the lives of rural women.

Safety and health

According to a report assessing the impact of the Swachh Bharat Mission, which was jointly performed by UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), avoiding open defecation makes over 93% of rural women feel safer from attack.

6,993 women from five different states—Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh—were included in the study.

Saving time

The results of the survey also shows that 91% of the women are able to save up to an hour each day that they would have otherwise spent traveling to open defecation places. Additionally, almost 88% of the female respondents said they were proud to have access to a bathroom.

Privacy and menstrual hygiene

81% said they no longer worry about privacy when changing menstrual hygiene products. Another important finding was that 93% of respondents said they no longer worry about contracting an infection while using a family toilet. Before toilets were built, women and girls had to take care of their sanitary needs outside, which left them feeling exposed, uneasy, and occasionally even embarrassed.

All time access

Women no longer have to wait till late at night or when it is dark to use the loo; they may now do so whenever they choose. A considerable change was also seen, with 92% of women indicating that they did not feel nervous about using the lavatory at night, a huge improvement over the 12% who did so before the installation of the toilet. 93% of the female respondents said they no longer avoid food to control the urge to defecate.