GS 3- Issues relating to the development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources

Keywords- SBM 2.0 guidelines, open defecation, manual scavenging, NFHS-4, ODF+, scientific processing/disposal reuse/recycle

Why in News?

• The recently released Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) 2.0 guidelines aims to take forward the success of the SBM launched in 2014 to new heights.

About Swachh Bharat Mission :

• Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) was launched in 2014 with the aim of ensuring a ‘clean India’ by 2nd October 2019 as a fitting tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th Birth Anniversary.

Objectives of the Swachh Bharat Mission:

1. Eliminate open defecation.
2. Conversion of insanitary toilets to pour-flush toilets.
3. Eradication of manual scavenging.
4. 100% collection and scientific processing/disposal reuse/recycle of Municipal Solid Waste.
5. To bring about a behavioural change in people with regards to healthy sanitation practices.
6. To create an enabling environment for private sector participation in Capital Expenditure and Operation & Maintenance (O&M) costs.

Components of the Swachh Bharat Mission:

1. Construction of household toilets.
2. Community & public toilets.
3. Solid waste management.
4. Information, Education & Communication (IEC) and Public Awareness.
5. Capacity building and administrative & office expenses (A&OE).

Underlying challenges associated with Swachh Bharat Mission :

1. More emphasis on toilet construction rather than focussing on all parameters.
2. Even the ODF status has been questioned by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in September 2018 report.
3. Many reports alleged that there is over-reporting of government set targets of toilet construction.
4. High levels of coercion have been used to build the toilets and behavioural change has been slow to follow.
5. Concerns regarding the durability and quality of construction of toilets.
6. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), 2016-17 found that open defecation remained fairly high in the rural areas of the BIMAROU states – Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, and Uttar Pradesh.
7. Despite considerable progress in the door to door waste collection, only one-third of the waste being generated is being processed.

Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 :

1. Envisions to make all cities ‘Garbage Free’ and ensure grey and black water management in all cities.
2. Make all urban local bodies as ODF+ and those with a population of less than 1 lakh as ODF++.
3. The Mission will focus on source segregation of solid waste, utilizing the principles of 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), scientific processing of all types of municipal solid waste and remediation of legacy dumpsites for effective solid waste management.
4. The outlay of SBM 2.0 is around ₹1.41 lakh crore.
5. Make Swachhta a Jan Andolan.

Swachh Bharat Mission-Rural 2.0 :

1. Emphasizes on the sustainability of achievements under phase I and to provide adequate facilities for Solid/Liquid & plastic Waste Management (SLWM) in rural India.
2. Implemented from 2020-21 to 2024-25 in a mission mode with a total outlay of ₹1.41 lakh crores under SBM 2.0 .
3. Inclusion of plastic waste management, Biodegradable solid waste management (including animal waste management), Greywater (Household Wastewater) management and Faecal sludge management.

Swachh Bharat Mission-2.0 guidelines :

1. It added an important dimension focused on solid waste management and its efficiency processing.
2. Guidelines aims for the efficient collection and transportation of waste and brings focus on processing all types of waste like plastic, construction and demolition waste
3. Providing budgetary support for remediating old waste disposed in all dumpsites across 4,372 cities in India before March 2023.
4. Guidelines further streamlining working procedures of components like source segregation; door-to-door collection of waste; separate transportation of different types of wastes; processing of wet waste, dry waste, and construction and demolition waste.
5. Urban local bodies (ULBs) in several States have to prepare detailed project reports (DPRs) for setting up waste processing systems for wet and dry waste.
6. Bioremediation as a waste processing facility has emphasized.

Waste Generation status in India :

1. As per the SBM 2.0 guidelines, the total quantity of waste generated by urban areas in India is about 1.32 lakh tonnes daily. This adds up to 4.8 crore tonnes per annum.
2. Of this only about 25% is being processed; the rest is disposed of in landfills every year.
3. More than 72 crore tonnes of waste need to be processed.

Funding guidelines :

1. The total funding dedicated for implementation of SBM 2.0 is ₹1.41 lakh crore of which about ₹39,837 crore is set aside for solid waste management.
2. The mission commits to providing financial assistance to set up fresh waste processing facilities and bioremediation projects across all the ULBs.
3. Financial assistance to set up construction and demolition waste processing facilities is limited to a chosen 154 large cities such as Bengaluru, Mysore etc which have a population of over 5 lakh.
4. SBM 2.0 allocates funding only to set up waste processing facilities, however requests for buying vehicles for collection of waste, issuing bins for source segregation or modernising the collection and transportation system are not in its scope.

New Funding Pattern :

1. 90% for ULBs in the North-eastern and Himalayan States
2. 100% for ULBs in Union Territories without legislature
3. 80% for ULBs in Union Territories with legislature
4. 25% for other ULBs with more than 10 lakh population
5. 33% for other ULBs with more than 1 lakh but less than 10 lakh population
6. 50% for other ULBs with less than 1 lakh population.
7. The remaining project cost will be paid from the 15th Finance Commission grants.

Conclusion :

• Lack of funds was one of the main reasons for the partial success of SBM in solid waste management. Now, since SBM 2.0 is committing to funding a significant portion of the project cost, thereby hoping to achieve the GoI target of waste disposal sites being free from old waste by March 2023
• Also the transformation of waste disposal sites to processing sites is likely to produce 72 lakh tonnes of organic compost per annum from 4.8 crore tonnes of waste generated across all ULBs in the country, which can be used to enrich the soil quality and can meet about 10-12% of the country’s fertilizer demand.

Mains Question:

Q. Despite many efforts for 100٪ waste processing under Swach Bharat Mission, it is still a long distance dream. In this background, analyse significance of Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 for India to achieve SDG- 6 and 11 by 2030. (15 marks)

Source- The Hindu