Failing The Capital On Swachh Mission

The Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan launched by Prime Minister Modi on Gandhi Jayanti in 2014 seems to have hit roadblock as far as the national capital is concerned.

According to the latest Comptroller and Auditor General report that was tabled on April 3, the Delhi Government despite having Rs 40.31 crore and 30 months at disposal failed to construct even a single toilet under Swachh Bharat Mission. This seems all the more ironical given the fact that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stood for the welfare and well-being of the common man and yet could not provide for as basic an amenity as a toilet.

The report, tabled in the State Assembly, observed that Rs 40.31 crore comprising of Central share of Rs 30.23 crore and State share of Rs 10.08 crore was released to the implementing agencies in January 2016 for the construction of household toilets, community toilets and public toilets.

But all those funds allocated for this purpose now remain idle in banks.

According to the CAG report, the Delhi Government did not give adequate importance to the implementation of the mission despite the Economic Survey of Delhi, 2016-17 revealing that 350,000 households in Delhi (about 10.5 per cent of all households) do not have toilet facility and 22 per cent slums lack toilet facility.

The AAP, in its manifesto had promised to construct 200,000 toilet blocks in slums/JJ clusters and unauthorised colonies. However, post the formation of the Government, when a high-powered committee requested the Government to identify the sites and blocks for constructions, the latter assessed that the Capital would need to construct only 11,117 household toilets, 25,097 community toilets (including 16,050 for slums and JJs) and 605 public toilets under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan by October 2019.

This marked a major departure from the details published in the manifesto.

The problem got further exacerbated due to the south and north Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMCs) not considering unauthorised colonies for projecting requirement of individual household toilets.

This was due to the fact that municipal corporations did not have jurisdiction over them. This left unauthorised colonies effectively out of the mission coverage with regard to household toilets.

The Delhi Government's inability to target individual households for the construction of household toilets and to identify sites and blocks for construction of community toilets and public toilets, and palsu ignoring the toilet requirements in unauthorised colonies shows its deficient concern for public convenience facilities.

The problems pertaining to Swachh Bharat Mission in Delhi also got compounded due to the lack of awareness levels. The CAG audit report also observed in this regard that a total of only Rs 2.03 crore was spent on public awareness programme against Rs 5.17 crore released.
East Delhi Municipal Corporation and Delhi Cantonment Board spent Rs 2.3 million and five million rupees against Rs 18.6 million and Rs 2.7 million released to them by the Delhi Government. The disregard for spreading awareness has meant that the public were unable to take benefit of a convenience for which they had funds allocated.

The United Nations report on water access and sanitation in India states that 564 million of the country's people still defecated in the open.