Narendra Modi wields broom, kick starts ‘Clean India’ campaign as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi picked a broom and swept the filthy streets of the capital on Thursday, launching a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of cleanliness and better sanitation.

The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India Mission, was launched on the birthday of independence leader Mahatma Gandhi - a public holiday - and aims to inform people about the link between sanitation and public health.

Here are the Highlights:

• Mahatma Gandhi gave us the message quit India, clean India.
• Bapu's dream of a clean India is still unfulfilled.
• Swachh Bharat campaign logo is not just a logo. It is as if Gandhiji is watching us, asking as when will we clean India.
• I would like to congratulate those who worked for this programme earlier. They must have been in different forms and with different names but the initiative was to ensure a clean India.
• The Prime Minister is a son of India first and later the Prime Minister.
• This government is not trying to take credit for the Clean India campaign. I know there will be criticism in a few days - look what happened? But I have come prepared to face that.
• Is cleaning just the job of a sweeper? Is it not our duty too? Do citizens have no role in this? We have to change this mindset.
• We reached Mars. No PM or minister went. It was the people who did it, our scientists who did it. So can't we create a 'Clean India'.
• If Indians can reach Mars then can't Indians go and clean our streets and roads?
• India can do it, the people of India can do it.
• I know people will criticize me in the next few days but if it leads to a clean India, then I am prepared for it.
• Is cleaning only the responsibility of the Karamcharis? Do citizens have no role in this? We have to change this mindset.
• This campaign is above politics, this is purely due to our love for the nation.
• This is a very difficult mission, but by 2019 we should accomplish it.
• It will be a tribute to Gandhiji on his 150th birth anniversary.
• If this is politicized or seen as a photo-op then we will not be doing justice to this mission.
• I am sure we will all come together and fulfil this mission.
• This is a job for 125 crore people and I say this 125 crore times. It isn't a job for Modi or the government alone.
• Gandhi didn't clean every village, but his commitment inspired millions to take up the task.
• Government and ministers can't do it alone, it is 'jan samanya ka' job.
• I have invited nine people and asked them to come to public places and work towards a Clean India. I ask them to invite 9 more people.
• I have invited Mridula Sinha ji, Sachin Tendulkar, Ramdev, Salman Khan, Kamal Haasan, Shashi Tharoor, Priyanka Chopra, Anil Ambani and team of Tarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chashma and asked them to invite 9 others.
• This work is the responsibility of the people of India. It is not the work of ministers or NGOs alone, but of the common man.
• Quit India was successful as the entire country was a part of that movement, I would ask 1.2 billion people to join this campaign to make India a clean place.
• Don't trust me or my government, trust the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi.
• The enthusiasm I am seeing on my social media pages for this campaign is heartening.
• We should pledge today to make it a clean India - 'I will not litter or allow anyone to litter'.
• When we go abroad we see how clean those countries are, we don't see them spitting around or throwing waste anywhere they wish to. Those places are clean because that is their dedication to cleanliness.

About 31 lakh central government employees working across the country will take a pledge of cleanliness in various public functions as part of the Modi administration’s ‘Clean India’ campaign.

Watch: Narendra Modi launches 'Swachcha Bharat' Mission

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"A clean India is the best tribute we can pay to Bapu when we celebrate his 150th birth anniversary in 2019. Mahatma Gandhi devoted his life so that India attains 'Swarajya' (home rule). Now the time has come to devote ourselves to the 'Swachchhata' (cleanliness) of our motherland," Modi said in a statement last week.

Read: Narendra Modi’s ‘Clean India’ campaign kicks off, 31 lakh employees to take cleanliness pledge

"I urge every one of you to devote at least one hundred hours every year, two hours every week, towards cleanliness. We can’t let India remain unclean any longer. On 2nd October I myself will set out with a broom and contribute to this pious task," he said.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharti launching the "Clean Gomti Campaign" in Lucknow (Photo: PTI)

India's burgeoning towns and cities are littered with garbage, the result of massive urban migration, poor civic planning and inadequate waste disposal systems, and rivers and lakes are polluted with sewage and industrial effluents.

Less than a third of India's 1.2 billion people have access to sanitation and more than 186,000 children under five die every year from diarrhoeal diseases caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation, according to the charity WaterAid.

Read: PM Modi seeks people's views on his 'Clean India' mission

A United Nations report in May said half of India's population still practise open defecation - putting them at risk of cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A and typhoid.

The resulting diseases and deaths cause major economic losses, and a World Bank report in 2006 estimated that India was losing 6.4 percent of GDP annually because of poor access to sanitation.

MoS for PMO Jitendra Singh sweeps an area outside North Block as he participates in 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ (Clean India Mission), in New Delhi (Photo: PTI)

Modi's government, which swept to power in May, has made building toilets a priority and he has pledged that every household will have a toilet by 2019.

According to WaterAid research, about 16 million Indians a year gain access to a basic toilet. This will need to increase to more than 100 million a year if the whole population is to have a toilet by 2019.

SWEEPING SLUMS, CLEANING TOILETS

While the prime minister led the drive by taking a broom to the streets of a housing colony in Delhi, ministers and other government officials have been ordered to clean their offices - including their toilets.

Ministers and bureaucrats have already been photographed sweeping their office compounds, while over 2,000 staff at President Pranab Mukherjee's sprawling estate, Rashtrapati Bhavan, were reported to be engaged in a big cleanup.

Read: Government to rope in business houses, RWAs for 'Clean India' drive

Many civil society organisations and companies have also joined the campaign, spreading awareness in urban slums and villages by putting on street plays about rubbish disposal, handing out leaflets about washing hands and even giving out broomsticks to members of the public.

Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan sweeps as he takes part in 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ (Clean India Mission) at FCI office in New Delhi (Photo: PTI)

"We have been working on the issue of clean water and sanitation for years, but the government's campaign has given everyone a new boost," said Sajit Menon from Save the Children, which has been promoting awareness in 114 slums in Delhi.

"Before, we would find it hard to get funding from corporates for such an issue, now there is much more interest to fund these programmes."

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London-listed Vedanta Resources said on Wednesday it was joining the Clean India Mission by launching special drives at all its sites, in states such as Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Tamil Nadu.

Vedanta, which has oil and gas wells, mines and power stations, said it was already constructing 30,000 toilets in rural Rajasthan and had plans to build 10,000 more.

Aid workers said that while increased investment in infrastructure was important, there must also be a change in attitudes.

"It won’t be enough just to build new toilets. Education and work to change people’s behaviour and attitudes to sanitation are crucial if we are to realise the full health and economic benefits of sanitation," said Neeraj Jain, Chief Executive of WaterAid India.