Gandhi Jayanti, 2 October, honours a man who treated cleanliness as inseparable from dignity. It is fitting, then, that this is the day India chose in 2014 to launch the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) — one of the largest sanitation campaigns in human history. More than a decade on, Gandhi Jayanti is a natural moment to ask how far the clean-up has come, and what is left to do.
Why sanitation, and why Gandhi's day
Gandhi famously said sanitation was more important than independence, linking clean surroundings to self-respect and to the fight against untouchability. Launching Swachh Bharat on his birthday, with a target of an open-defecation-free India by 2019 — his 150th anniversary — tied a modern public-health mission to that older moral vision. The stakes were real: widespread open defecation was a major driver of disease and child malnutrition.
What has been achieved
The numbers are genuinely large. More than 12 crore individual household toilets have been built since 2014, along with community sanitary complexes. Under Phase I, rural India was declared open-defecation free (ODF) in 2019, with the government reporting 100% rural sanitation coverage — a dramatic shift in behaviour and infrastructure in just five years. Few countries have changed a basic sanitation practice at this speed and scale.
From building toilets to keeping India clean
Building a toilet is the beginning, not the end — and the mission's Phase II reflects that, aiming for ODF Plus. The idea is to sustain open-defecation-free status (making sure toilets are actually used and maintained) and to add solid and liquid waste management so villages are clean, not just toilet-equipped. As of 2025, over 83% of villages had declared themselves ODF Plus — more than 5.6 lakh of about 5.86 lakh villages — with a growing number classed as 'Model' villages that manage their waste well. A large second-phase outlay backs this work.
The hard part: behaviour and upkeep
The remaining challenges are less about concrete and more about habits and systems:
- Use, not just access — a toilet only improves health if the whole family uses it consistently.
- Water — toilets need water, which ties sanitation directly to the Jal Jeevan Mission.
- Maintenance — toilets and waste systems must be kept working over years.
- Dignity of sanitation workers — ending manual scavenging and ensuring safe, mechanised waste handling.
- Urban waste — cities face their own battle with garbage, segregation and processing.
Why it still matters
Sanitation is not a niche issue — it sits at the heart of public health. Safe toilets and clean surroundings reduce waterborne disease and, crucially, help children absorb nutrition, which is why sanitation is one of the strongest levers against child malnutrition. It also restores dignity, especially for women and girls, who bear the greatest cost of inadequate sanitation.
What you can do
- Practise and promote proper sanitation and waste segregation in your own home and community.
- Support sanitation and WASH NGOs, especially those working on behaviour change and the dignity of sanitation workers.
- Back urban clean-up and waste-management initiatives where you live.
Swachh Bharat has changed India's sanitation landscape at remarkable speed. Finishing the job — making every toilet used, watered and maintained, and every neighbourhood genuinely clean — is the work this Gandhi Jayanti calls us to. To support organisations working on sanitation and public health, find verified NGOs on NGOLists, and companies can channel CSR funds into this cause.
Further reading on NGOLists
- Jal Jeevan Mission: Tracking India's Progress on Tap Water for Every Home
- Waterborne Diseases in Monsoon: A Prevention Guide for India
- World Food Day: Hunger and Malnutrition in India — What the Data Shows
- Independence Day: How Far Has India Come on Social Development?
- How CSR Funding Works in India: A Guide for Companies