Page 43 - Mann Ki Baat September 2022
P. 43

India, it was unbelievable that    she was getting married into, a
        until  the  Prime  Minister  began   school-going girl demanded a
        this campaign, there were crores   clean toilet in her school because
        of women in India who had to       there was  a  lack  of  one—  all
        defecate in the open and as a      these are examples of cultural
        nation, we had let this pass for   and behavioural change in the
        so  many  decades.  The  social    country.
        impact of this movement has           I think we are reaching a great
        given dignity to women in rural    level of public education. The
        areas, which is something that is   more  the  youngsters  are  made
        unprecedented.                     aware of this campaign and the
            Prime Minister Narendra Modi   more they are made aware of
        is motivating a billion Indians    how beautiful it is to live in places
        to collectively strive towards     which are clean and how it is all
        building  this  country  and  taking   of  our  responsibility to maintain
        it to unprecedented heights. But   public hygiene and cleanliness, it
        Swachhta Abhiyaan is not a one-    will automatically become a mass
        time activity, this is a continuous   movement and we will be able to
        program. The way we clean our      sustain that level of cleanliness
        homes every day, in the same       we see abroad. Swachh Bharat
        manner, Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan     Abhiyaan is  the largest  mass
        is an ongoing process. The most    movement in the whole world that
        important yardstick for measuring   is channelising the energy of the
        the success of this program would   citizens collectively to make India
        be assessing the cultural change   clean.
        brought by this initiative. As I
        recollect, there was a woman in     Scan the QR code to listen to
        UP who refused to marry because     youth icon Shri Tejasvi Surya talk
        there wasn’t a toilet in the house   about Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan

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