Swachh Bharat Abhiyan – the NDA government’s flagship sanitation scheme – reached its five-year anniversary yesterday, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the birth of Indian independence figurehead Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. “An ideal village will be so constructed as to lend itself to perfect sanitation,” the Mahatma once reflected. “The cause of many of our […]
Swachh Bharat
Death in the sewers: Manual scavenging continues to kill
In the first six months of 2019, at least fifty people died because of manual scavenging – in just eight states. This is according to data collected from the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK) from Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. The fatalities offer a snapshot of a much […]
President Kovind praises Ayushman Bharat
President Ram Nath Kovind has praised the Centre’s flagship health insurance initiative Ayushman Bharat, touting the number of people who have availed the benefits of the scheme thus far. During an address before a joint parliamentary session, President Kovind said the scheme had made a significant contribution to reducing the catastrophic out-of-pocket spending on health […]
Health For Polls: How democracy leads to better health
When you go to vote this time, do consider health as one of the biggest benefits of democracy. When thinking about democracy and its advantages, positive effects on health are often not the first thing that comes to mind. Yet new research published in The Lancet suggests democracy plays a bigger role in better health […]
Swachh Bharat: Has the ‘Clean India’ mission worked?
Narendra Modi made tackling India’s sanitation woes a cornerstone of his 2014 election campaign. With the launch of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan after the BJP’s victory in the polls, it seemed as though the government was moving towards fulfilling its promises. Almost five years on, how has the Mission benefited India and to what extent […]
Sanitation economy set to boom, will cholera be eradicated?
The sanitation economy of India is set to double thanks to Swachh Bharat claimed Jin Montesano, chief public affairs officer, LIXIL Group at the 18th World Toilet Summit. “Swachh Bharat Mission has generated significant interest in addressing the urgent sanitation issue in India, not only with traditional actors such as international organizations, but also with […]
World Toilet Day: A review of India’s toilets and Swachh Bharat
On World Toilet Day, United Nations figures on open defecation and toilets across the world should ring alarm bells. Four billion people still lack access to basic sanitation facilities. Each day, nearly a thousand children are dying due to preventable water and sanitation-related diarrhoeal diseases. What’s the situation in India? “Four years since Swachh Bharat’s […]
How India and Pakistan are fighting the pollution menace
As Delhiites choke on smog, are efforts across the border efforts to make Pakistan “clean and green” bearing fruit? The newly elected Government of Pakistan under Prime Minister Imran Khan had made tackling environmental challenges an election agenda. Since coming to office, Khan has launched his vision for a “Clean, Green Pakistan” – with the […]
More to Swachh Bharat than building toilets?
Swachh Bharat, or Clean India, is typically seen as just an endeavour to place toilets in villages and encourage hand washing. While these things seem like simple measures to improve sanitation, the knock on effect of doing so could have far more wide ranging consequences. Three of seven most common causes of disease and death […]
Hyderabad free of open defecation, says Centre
![By Muzi at English Wikipedia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://i0.wp.com/www.healthissuesindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Hyderabad_Town_Hall.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 "Hyderabad free of open defecation, says Centre")
Hyderabad has been declared open defecation free (ODF) by the Indian government. A Quality Council of India (QCI) inspectorate visited the city to check its sanitation facilities. This followed a series of efforts by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to boost access to sanitation in the Telangana state capital. The measures included the […]