Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently inaugurated the Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra – an interactive experience centre on the Swachh Bharat Mission at the Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti at Rajghat, New Delhi.
The Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission) is an initiative to accelerate efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and to put focus on sustainable cleanliness.
The mission aims to move the nation from having over 500 million people defecating in the open in 2014 to becoming open defecation free.
While predominantly relating to cleanliness and sanitation, the mission is cross cutting and is immersed in all ministries, agencies and governance.
For example, recently, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology organised a seminar on E-waste Management under the aegis of Swachh Bharat Mission.
Among the key visions and pillars of the Swachh Bharat Mission is to encourage cost effective and appropriate technologies for ecologically safe and sustainable sanitation.
The SBM has been adopting and deploying cutting edge technology in an effort to accelerate its mission as well as to make it more efficient.
Technology offers new ways to involve the public in last mile tracking. Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) is using IOT and tech solutions to collect citizen feedback to monitor the quality of public toilet cleanliness.
This independent audit lens helps cities track third-party service providers and improve service.
E-awareness initiatives, such as online courses on sanitation management, can be used to shape behaviours.
Vehicle tracking solutions have been deployed in many cities to monitor waste collection and truck route optimisation.
Biometric mobile attendance apps track field sanitation staff. The challenge in governance is always lack of resources and staff.
Civic tech enables cities to identify the hot spots and patterns, and thus respond dynamically and better use constrained resources.
The latest platform is an interactive experience centre on the Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission) at the Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti at Rajghat, New Delhi.
A tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, the Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra (RSK) was first announced by the Prime Minister on 10th April 2017, on the occasion of the centenary celebrations of Gandhiji’s Champaran Satyagraha.
The centre has a innovative mix of digital and outdoor installations tracking India’s ambitious cleanliness transformation.
There are three distinct sections of the Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra.
Hall 1 has a unique 360° audio visual immersive show which provides an overview of the Swachh Bharat journey.
Hall 2 contains a series of interactive LED panels, hologram boxes, interactive games and much more on the Swachh Bharat Mission.
The Prime Minister also saw the installations in the lawn adjacent to RSK which showcase three exhibits which are synonymous with the Swachh Bharat Mission.
It includes Mahatma Gandhi leading people to the Swachhata pledge, Rani Mistris of rural Jharkhand and children swachhagrahis who call themselves Vaanar Sena.
After taking a tour of the entire RSK, the Prime Minister briefly visited the souvenir centre and then interacted with 36 school students from Delhi, representing all states and Union Territories of India.
After interacting with the children, the Prime Minister addressed the nation and dedicated the RSK as a permanent tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.
He reiterated the importance of swachhata in daily life, especially during the fight against the coronavirus.
The Prime Minister launched ‘Gandagi Mukt Bharat’, (Dirt Free India), a special week long campaign for swachhata (cleanliness) in the run up to Independence Day. Every day till 15th August there will be special cleanliness initiatives in urban and rural India to re-enforce the mission.
