Cleanliness important for better living, says Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday gave a clarion call to the people of the country to rededicate towards fulfilling Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of a Clean India as he launched the ‘Swachhata hi Seva(cleanliness is service)’ campaign, which is part of the Modi government’s ambitious Swachh Bharat mission launched in 2015.

The ‘Swachhata hi Seva’ was announced to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary and also the fourth anniversary of the Swachh Bharat mission. The PM said that those working for the cleanliness campaign would be remembered like freedom fighters in the times to come and would be known as “true heirs” of Gandhi.

As part of the campaign, Mr Modi also cleaned the premises of Baba Sahib Ambedkar Higher Secondary School.

The campaign saw many BJP leaders, including Union ministers, chief ministers of BJP ruled states, party workers, celebrities and notable personalities from different fields along with people from different walks of life participating in the cleanliness drive at different places across the country.

Mr Modi also interacted with people including spiritual leaders Mata Amritanandamayi, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, industrialist Ratan Tata, actor Amitabh Bachchan, ITBP personnel involved in cleaning the Pangong Lake and its surroundings in Leh, devotees at Patna Sahib gurudwara and Aj-mer Sharif and people at different places to urge th-em to join the campaign.   

“Cleanliness is playing an important role in improving people’s living standards, he said, citing a WHO estimate that over three lakh lives would be saved by it and also a study that cases of diarrhoea would fall by over 30 per cent. “Lack of cleanliness play havoc, especially in the lives of the poor, pushing them into a cesspool of diseases. Indian culture has traditionally put an emphasis on cleanliness,” said Mr Modi during his interaction through video conference.  

Describing the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ of the Modi government as “arg-uably the most successful one” of the government schemes “with a difference”, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said in the history of Independent India “this is one scheme which the people of India snatched away from the government and converted into a ‘people’s movement’.”  

In an article on his social media page, Mr Jaitley said when the scheme was announced in 2014, the rural  sanitation  coverage  of  India was at 39 percent which is now at a “phenomenal” 92 percent.  Mr Jaitley said the PM announced a target that India will be made ‘open-defecation free’ when the country will celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in 2019.

“This was not an easy goal to achieve. This involved a behavioural change of the people. Many in the rural areas were initially reluctant. But this ‘people’s   movement’ has today transformed into a ‘women’s movement’ with rural women playing a leading role,” said Mr Jaitley.