‘Swachhata Abhiyan’ mobile application- Key Facts

Recently, a mobile application named Swachhata Abhiyan has been launched by the Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment. The mobile app is available on the Google Play Store.

Key Points

• The Swachhata Abhiyan mobile app has been launched to collect and compile the public data related to insanitary latrines.
• At present, there is no authentic database for checking the location of insanitary latrines. Thus, it has been decided to take help from Social Organisations, NGOs, and the public to compile the data with the help of the Swachhata Abhiyan mobile app.
• The app has been developed to identify and geotag the insanitary latrines data.
• The compiled data will then be used to replace insanitary latrines with sanitary latrines.
• As per the 2011 Census, there are over 26 lakh insanitary latrines in the country.
• Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 mandates insanitary latrines survey, their demolition and replacement with sanitary latrines.
• Swachh Bharat Mission of the government is being used for identifying insanitary latrines and their replacement with sanitary latrines.
• Over 9 crore sanitary latrines have been constructed under the Swachh Bharat Mission.
• India has also been declared open defecation free.

Swachh Bharat Mission

This mission was launched in the year 2014 for improving solid waste management and eliminating open defecation. The mission has two parts- Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (SBM Gramin) and Swachh Bharat Mission Urban (SBM Urban). SBM Gramin is overseen by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation and SBM Urban is looked at by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry.