Unpacking Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen

Almost 100 million rural households in India did not have access to sanitation facilities as of 2014. The Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen or SBM(G) was launched as a national campaign to eliminate “open defecation in rural areas during the period 2014 to 2019”.

What enabled SBM(G) to bridge this gap and embark on a journey of governance transformation?

We at Samagra, launched The Governance Matrix to explain the gap between the expectation of perfect outcomes and the reality of an imperfect system. It is a tool that can be used to assess the readiness of a government to implement initiatives successfully.

We launched a poll to know your perspective on the governance transformation journey of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) and this is what you shared with us!

Poll Results

Samagra Point of View (POV)

In our view, the governance systems for improving the rural sanitation landscape moved from 'Shooting Star' to 'Battle Ready'. 'Political salience' was high from the beginning, the mission being led by the Prime Minister himself, which translated into a time-bound target for an Open Defecation Free (ODF) India by October 2, 2019. 'System Capacity' was low initially but, given the high political salience, got built rapidly- adequate and timely funds were made available for toilet construction, and private CSR funds were encouraged to be directed towards cleanliness initiatives; on the people front State Missions were set-up, Swachh Bharat Preraks were recruited to catalyze action at the district level, and an army of Swachhagrahis was created to trigger bottom-up demand, and finally robust processes for reporting (MIS) and ODF validation (leveraging the Quality Council of India) were put in place.

For more understanding of the Governance Matrix, refer to this video explainer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7HICuohFyA

Let us know what you would like to hear more and stay tuned for our next poll!