PINK TOILETS: SWACHH BHARAT MISSION

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Context - In Karnataka, many Gram Panchayats have started the construction of “Pink Toilets” to promote the safety and security of women.

Details

Many Gram Panchayats in Karnataka have taken the initiative to construct “Pink Toilets” to make sanitation accessible and safe, and to remove shame during menstrual days among adolescent girls.
Pink Toilets are an innovation under the Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen (SBM-G).
These toilets are provided with adequate water supply, lighting, a changing room and other amenities, including the washroom for adolescent girls and women.
Each toilet has an incinerator which is used for the safe disposal of sanitary pads and menstrual waste.
- Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) is an integral part of waste management under the Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen (SBM-G) campaign.
The initiative has been admired by girls and women, supporting them to remove embarrassment during their menstrual days.
The toilets have been constructed with the cooperation and coordination between Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, 15th FC and the Gram Panchayat funds.

Swachh Bharat Mission

Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) is a country-wide campaign initiated by the Government of India in 2014 to eliminate open defecation and improve solid waste management.
It is a restructured version of the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan launched in 2009.
Phase 1 of the Swachh Bharat Mission lasted till October 2019.
Phase 2 is being implemented between 2020–21 and 2024–25.
The mission aimed to achieve an "open-defecation free" (ODF) India by 2 October 2019, the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi through the construction of toilets.
The objectives of the first phase of the mission:
- Eradication of manual scavenging.
- Generating awareness and bringing about behaviour change regarding sanitation practices.
- Building capacity at the local level.
The second phase of the mission aims to sustain the open defecation free status and improve the management of solid and liquid waste, while also working to improve the lives of sanitation workers.
Under the scheme, the Government provides subsidies for constructing toilets, waste management structures, and awareness campaigns to bring behaviour change.
The campaign is financed by the Government of India and state governments.
The mission is split into two: Rural and Urban.
- In rural areas "SBM - Gramin" is financed and monitored through the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
- In Urban areas "SBM - urban" is overseen by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

Present Status

According to the dashboards maintained by ministries, more than 100 million individual household level toilets have been constructed in rural areas and 6 million household toilets in urban areas.
Nearly 6 million community and public toilets have also been constructed in the urban areas.
Nearly 11 crores of online Integrated Management Information systems (IMIS) have been constructed in the country.
Nearly 2 lakh Community Sanitary Complexes (CSCs) have been constructed under the programme.
More than 4,200 cities and more than 600,000 villages across the country have declared themselves open defecation free (ODF).
More than 87 thousand wards in urban areas now have 100% door to door collection of solid waste and nearly 65 thousand words practice 100% segregation of waste at source.
According to UNICEF, the number of people without a toilet has been reduced from 550 million to 50 million.
The World Bank reports that 96% of Indians who have a toilet use it.