r.i.c.e.

Swachh Bharat Mission since its inception has been facing a drought in terms of policy solutions. Given that 2019 is the target for achieving an open defecation free India, the program has already lived half of its life and yet has not managed to look beyond building latrines. While most of India lags in getting people to build latrines and use them, the government machinery continues to over publicize the “success islands”. The Government of India’s solution to 60% of the world’s open defecation problem is replicating what happened in these isolated places.

I visited Indore, India’s second open defecation free district, to understand what helped it reach this milestone and if there were lessons that Swachh Bharat Mission could learn from. I wondered: Could this be replicated in other parts of India? And, more importantly should it be replicated in other parts of the country?

To know more about the Indore experience read this article in THE WIRE .